


Surprisingly

by grapenight



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, M/M, rayvin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 63,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1390672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grapenight/pseuds/grapenight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray has a crappy start to high school. Things start to change when his family takes in an exchange student, Gavin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first story in this fandom, so I'm completely new to all this. I'm going to try my best to do well in writing this. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask.

"Honey, wake up," I blinked, trying to adjust to the light that had entered my room after my mom pulled the curtains open to wake me up. I was still extremely sleepy, unable to fully wake up. 

"Come on, Ray, it's your first day of school," Mom reminded me. "I've even got breakfast for you after you take your shower, so come on, and get the year started off right!" 

I slowly began to become more awake and remembered what today was. It wasn't only the first day of school, it was also my very first day of high school. As I realized that, I also noticed what was wrong about this situation. 

"Mom, why aren't you at work? You're going to be so late!" I observed. She was normally at work at six, every weekday, no fail. She would occasionally work one the weekends, too, just to make sure we had enough money. 

"I took a couples hours off this morning, just so I could be with my only son the morning before his fist day. This is a big moment for you, sweetie." 

She left me so I could begin to get ready, but in reality, I wasn't sure the was anything I could do to really be ready. This year was going to be hard, because of the school lines. All of my friends from my middle school lived in different high school district than I did. Actually, most of the kids I went to school with would go to a different school than I would. My neighborhood was the only one that went to the other school. This was something I had been dreading for a long time. High school would be hard enough on its one, but going in blind, without a single friend to be found, would be nearly impossible. Also, because I was going to see my friends a lot less often now, we had stayed up until four in the morning last night playing video games together, so I had nowhere near enough sleep. 

I trudged into the shower and tried to think as little as possible about what the day had in store for me. I had to be positive for my mother, she was so excited for my first day. We were really close, since it was just us after me dad had flaked out on us when I was younger, and I always wanted to make sure she was happy. I saw how hard she work and how much she worried about me, and sometimes I wondered if she tried at all to make sure she was enjoying life, too. I did the best in my ability to please her whenever I could. 

After I was cleaned and dressed somewhat decent, I went into the kitchen to find something similar to a feast waiting for me. My mom had gone all out, pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, and juice, and it was all out waiting for me. There was at least enough food to happily feed four people to have plenty, and it was just for my mom and I. 

"Wow, thanks Mom!" I said, and began eating. I was pretty small but that never stopped me from eating a lot. 

"Are you excited for school today?" My mom asked as she started eating her food. 

I wasn't really, but there's no way I could tell her that. "Yeah, it should be a great experience," I said, looking down at my food as I did so she couldn't tell I was lying. It was times like this where it's best to not tell the truth. 

"Good," she said. "I'm just so proud of you, Ray, really, you're such a wonderful son." 

We continued to chat as we ate out food, and when my mom looked at the clock and saw it was 8, she started panicking. "Oh my, we weren't even watching for the bus, who knows what time it'll get here, oh no, I hope I haven't made you miss it." 

"It's okay, Mom," I said, finishing my last piece of bacon and getting up. "I'm sure it hasn't come yet. I can go outside and wait for it now." 

I searched around quickly to find my backpack, which had been in a closet gathering dust until the day before when I had fished it out and shoved it full of school supplies. The day was approaching far too quickly. 

I kissed my mom on the forehead and said my goodbyes. 

"I'll see you later, have a wonderful day!" Mom called as I went outside to wait for the bus. I smiled and thanked her, waving one last goodbye before I closed the door. I was lucky she didn't want to wait for the bus with me, that would have been taking it a bit too far. 

I walked to the end of the street where the bus stop was. There were a few older kids that I recognized but didn't know well enough to even know their names there waiting. Also, there was the only other kid who was in my grade that lived my neighborhood, waiting to take the bus to his first day of high school, probably all alone just like I was. We were never friends, I didn't know anything about him other than the fact that he sometimes appeared very grumpy and his name was Michael. Despite this, I hoped that we could possibly be friends. I was approaching him to say hi and properly introduce myself when the bus pulled up and everyone climbed on. 

I followed behind them, and was slightly nervous when I got on the bus to see that it was half full. Quickly, I decided to attempt to sit with Michael, and hopefully make a friend. I stopped beside Michael's seat and asked, "Can I sit here?" 

Michael looked at me, and as soon as we made eye contact I knew I had made a bad choice. His glare was one of the angriest I had seen, and it would've been quite impressive if I wasn't on the receiving end of it. 

"No," he said. "Leave me the fuck alone." 

I knew better than to test my luck and I quickly escaped to an empty seat. This was starting off well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love adding notes, anyways, I hope someone likes this. I'm very new to this fandom (I have been writing the same type of stuff forever, so this is a huge leap for me), so if you have any suggestions or ideas, I would love to hear them. I have a good feeling for this story, and I hope it turns out as well as I think it will. It's kind of got a slow start, but it'll pick up soon. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it! I'm going to be updating every Thursday, except fr today, when I'm going to be posting two.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As I looked around the room at the tables full of kids, laughing and enjoying being reunited with their friends, and then back to my table with the trash and me, I felt like it was an accurate representation of how my high school career was going so far.

It turned out that most of the kids who went to my new school were from the same middle school, and joining their extremely solid friend circles was hard. I was pretty confident, it was part of my nature, but after multiple failed opportunities at befriending another freshman failed, I was about ready to give up. 

The classes themselves didn't seem bad, but it was also the first day, so we weren't expected to do anything. Being in the classes, and finding someone to talk to was an entirely different issue. It apparently took no time at all to be labeled as a freak, which was strange considering that in all my school experience, we were pretty much friends with everyone, it really didn't matter. Here, the cliques were insanely clear and sturdy. 

Another issue I had was finding my classes. I didn't know how anyone was expected to find an entirely new classroom, possibly on the other side of the school, in just a couple minutes. Needless to say, I was late to almost every one of my classes, although most of the teachers didn't care, I just got a couple warnings to not make it a habit. But based off of all the annoyed stares I got from fellow students when I came into class late, I was going to try damn hard not to be late again. 

I had a few classes with Michael, who had made it clear that we weren't going to be friends, but other than that I didn't see any familiar faces. The only time where being friendless was a big problem was lunch. The tables all had six seats, although some had an extra chair or two for extra people, and most of the tables were occupied by someone. I decided to make finding a table a goal over getting lunch, because unlike schools on TV, it was made clear to us that we couldn't eat our lunches in other parts of the school, and we were forced to stay in the cafeteria.

I managed to find a table that was only empty because it had some trash on it, and I decided it would be good enough. As I looked around the room at the tables full of kids, laughing and enjoying being reunited with their friends, and then back to my table with the trash and me, I felt like it was an accurate representation of how my high school career was going so far. 

When I got home, I was the only one in the house, not surprisingly since my mom was usually at work at this time, and let out a sigh of relief. Here was the time and place where I didn't have to put up an act, or struggle to make it through. I immediately went to my Xbox after dropping my school bad. 

"Hey Brown Man, what's up, how was your new school?" One of my friends asked over my headset about 20 minutes later. 

"It was what could be expected, absolute shit," I said honestly. 

"That's rough, man. Today was great for us, though," he continued with his story of my friends' wonderful first day at school while I cursed the school district. 

Over the next couple weeks, things remained very similar to how they started. I'd go to school, spend all of my time alone, probably focusing more on the schoolwork than I ever had before, and then I'd come home, and play some games with my real friends, all while lying to my mom about how school was actually going. I felt ad for lying, but I'd feel even more bad if she knew that I wasn't having the time of my life in school, and besides, she'd be too worried about me, considering I never had a problem making friends before. 

I didn't have a problem making friends, I was usually good with people, as long as they were open enough to give me a chance. No one was willing to do that, though, so I was stuck. 

About a month after school started, I turned 15. My mother was extremely excited about this, as she often was about my birthday, and encouraged me to invite as many of my friends over for cake and ice cream as I wanted. I was excited to, because it would give me a chance to see my old friends in person again, not just talking to them over a microphone. That very night I brought it up with five or sick of them as we were playing, and they all seemed excited for it. 

By the time the day rolled around, my isolation at school didn't even phase me. I was too excited for the later part of the day, where I would finally be reunited with my best friends. School seemed to pass by more quickly than normal, and then I was at home, straightening the house up at my mother's request. She got home at five, as she usually does, but this time while carrying a huge box, containing possibly the best cake ever. It said 'Happy Birthday, Ray!' and had many of my favorite video game and television characters. 

"Holy crap, Mom, this is awesome!" I said, truthfully. 

"No problem, honey, I just hope you and your friends enjoy it." 

I smiled and went to watch TV while I waited for everyone to show up. Six o'clock, the time when they were supposed to arrive rolled around and no one was to be seen. I wondered if I had possibly told them the wrong time and brushed it off, but by 7:30, I began to realize that no one would be coming. My mother, clearly smarter than me, must have realized it awhile before I did, because when I entered the kitchen with a sunken face, she already had a plate of cake and ice cream made up for me. 

It was then that I lost my self control, and I spilled everything to her. My hell like school experience, the absence of friends, the rudeness, and finally the recent abandonment of my old friends. My mom listened the entire way, and I could see her face, which said my stories confirmed what she had been thinking. She already had an idea of what was going on, she was able to see through my lies, and she wasn't surprised. I probably shouldn't have been surprised either, because when I thought back, I could tell I was drifting apart with my friends, and it had been happening since the day school started, I just didn't notice. 

In order to make me feel better, my mom and I stayed up late eating cake and watching movies, even the action ones which I knew Mom hated, but put up with because of me, and forgetting about real life. It was nice. 

Little did I know that my mom would start making plans that night to help fix my situation. 

The next couple months passed, leaves changed colors then fell to the ground, then the snow came, and I spent them very similar to the first month, although I started to play all my games in single player all the time. I was alone, I was lame, and I was trying my hardest not to care. 

A week before winter break started and the first semester of my freshman year ended, my mom called me into the kitchen to have a talk. 

"We're going to be having someone stay with us soon, I signed us up for a foreign exchange student program," my mom started with, and I didn't have time to reply before she said. "His name is Gavin and he'll be here in two weeks, shortly after Christmas." 

She continued to give me details about this foreign boy and his stay and the program, but all I could think was am I so desperate that my mom has to sign us up for someone to hang out with me? I probably should have been offended, but I knew she was doing what she thought was best and she was trying really hard, so I decided to roll with it. 

Once she was done explaining, she sent me to start cleaning the extra room we had, which the kid would be staying in, which just happened to be connected to my room by a single door. Soon we were going to have a foreign stranger staying with us. It was going to be an... interesting experience at least. I found myself almost praying that he wouldn't hate me, and that he would give me a chance to befriend him. I realized I was getting pretty desperate for a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two, wooo! Maybe next time Ray will get a break and cheer up a little bit. I kind of feel really bad for him now, poor guy. Next chapter on Thursday!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was slightly nervous about meeting him. It would really suck to be stuck living with an asshole for months.

Airports were weird. Not only what we were doing was weird and completely new, but we had to go to the airport in order to get it started. There were just so many people, and every time I saw a boy roughly my age walk by, I couldn't help to wonder if they would be living with me for the next six months. 

Mom knew what Gavin looked like, she had seen a picture when they were working out the details for the exchange, but I had no idea. To make sure he could find us, we were holding up a sign that said 'Gavin Free'. I never imagined that people did that in real life, holding up the sign like we were, but I guess they do, because I could see a few other people doing the same. 

I was slightly nervous about meeting him. It would really suck to be stuck living with an asshole for months. He did have a kickass name, though, so maybe that was foreshadowing to how cool he would be. Maybe. 

After about half an hour of waiting, my mom sent me off to a restaurant so I could get some snacks and drinks for the car ride. I didn't know what to get, because I had no idea what Gavin would like, so I just grabbed a large variety of things. What kind of food did they eat in England anyways? Like I knew they had fish and chips, but I doubt that's what they eat all the time. Tea? Should we have bought some tea for him? 

I returned to my mom and asked her about the tea. She laughed and said, "We can go to the grocery store soon with him and get him anything he needs, don't worry. And, Ray, I know you're a good kid, but just make sure you nice to him, because he's probably much more nervous than you are. Could you imagine going to a different country all alone? He definitely has a good reason to be nervous." 

As she was saying this, a group of passengers from a ne plane started walking in. Towards the back, a teenage boy walked alone, looking around, for something, maybe someone. Maybe he was our exchange student. As I thought about it, he looked over our way and saw our sign, and he smiled and began heading in our direction. He must be Gavin. 

He was thin and about my height, maybe a couple inches taller or so. His hair was slightly messy, and it looked like it was styled to be that way. 

When my mom noticed him coming closer to us, she smiled brightly, "Here he comes," she said. 

He threw the backpack he was carrying around his back, sliding his arms through the straps. 

"Hello, I'm Gavin Free," he said, and I noticed how British he sounded. I don't think I've met many people in real life that had accents like that. Also, I noticed that his nose was fucking huge. 

"Hi, dear, it's great to meet you," My mom said, pulling the stranger into a hug, obviously knowing no boundaries. "I'm Mrs. Narvaez, and this is my son, Ray." 

"Hey," I said after my mom released him from the hug. 

Gavin smiled brightly and replied, "Nice to me you. So, not meaning to be rude, but I'm absolutely starving! Seven hours is a long time to go without eating, isn't it? They offered lunch on the plane, but it wasn't the best looking grub, so I decided to wait." 

"I've got some food here, if there's anything you'd like," I said, holding out the bag of snacks. Gavin smiled again and looked through the bag. 

"Wow, this is absolutely top!" He exclaimed, so I figured there was something he liked in there. He took out a bag and began eating it. 

"Why don't we go get your bags now?" My mom asked, and we headed off towards baggage claim. 

As we walk, Gavin tells us a little about himself, easily making conversation. He seemed nice enough. When his bags rolled around, I couldn't believe how much stuff he had. 

"Wow, do you think you have enough? I feel like you might have forgot something," I said, completely joking. My mom shot me a look, which always accompanied her favorite lecture. 'Not everyone understands that you're never serious, Ray, please be nice' was about the gist of it. Gavin, clearly caught on quickly, though and smiled at me. 

"You can never be over prepared, lad," He said with a wink. 

I laughed and helped him pick up some of his shit. It was heavy, too, he clearly made sure he had everything he could ever need. Despite the surplus of bags, we make it out to the car without losing anything. 

The car ride consisted mostly of my mom asking Gavin questions about his life, which he always answered pleasantly. At one point, when she stopped the constant flow of questions for a moment, Gavin turned to me and said, "What about you, Ray, what's your life like?" 

I was startled by the question, and I struggled to come up with an answer. "Well, um, yeah, I go to school, and then come home, and um... I play video games?" 

"Awesome!" he said, seeming genuine, to my relief. 

When we got home, I again helped Gavin carry his insane amount of stuff into the house. 

"Ray, once Gavin gets settled in, will you give him a tour of the house? I'm going to start making dinner for you boys," my mom said, walking off to the kitchen. 

I led Gavin to his room, and set down all of his stuff. "So there's not really much to tour, my room is beside yours and the bathroom is right across the hallway, and my mom's bedroom is down the hall. I can show you the kitchen and living room, and all that stuff, I guess." 

Gavin tossed his finally bag on the pile of bags already present and threw himself on his bed for the next six months or so. "That sounds wonderful, but I personally think we need to check out this whole video game system you mentioned. That plane ride was a doozy, I would really love to shoot to have some fun and shoot some things or something like that." 

I couldn't stop my face from lighting up, because I felt the exact same way. "Holy shit, yes, come on, let's go, I'll even let you choose the game as a welcoming present." 

Gavin smiled and threw his arm around my shoulders, clearly having no personal boundaries, which I actually didn't care about. "You're pretty top, Ray, I think we're going to get along well." 

I smiled in hope that he was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, I updated when I said I would! I'm going to try to keep it up, I'll post a chapter once a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, something like that. I hope you enjoy this, and I'm always open to ideas and comments and things. Thank you so much for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It turns out that Gavin was pretty good at games, except for when he was doing things like killing me or giggling at something he was doing, totally losing his focus.

"How the fuck taught you how to play? We were on a team, Gavin, you can't just shoot me!" 

"In my defense, you really did look a lot like an enemy. I was just looking out for us." 

"You were looking out for us by killing the other half of your team? Sorry, but that's not how it works," I pointed out to Gavin. 

He simply shrugged in response. 

It turns out that Gavin was pretty good at games, except for when he was doing things like killing me or giggling at something he was doing, totally losing his focus. 

"Boys! I have dinner!" My mom called up to us, interrupting our game. I knew better than to wait, though, because when dinner was ready, you showed up to dinner or you didn't eat. That was the household rule, mostly so I would stop playing to get food, because my mother had learned what a tedious process that was. 

"Come on, we've got to go now, or we aren't getting anything," I informed Gavin. 

He hopped up from his seat and headed to the kitchen, which could be found easily without a tour. "So, real quick, is your mother a good cook or should I invest in some good snacks to keep around?" he asked. 

"Oh no, she's good, don't worry," I said. 

Mom had gone all out for Gavin's first night here. She had prepared a wide variety of food, and even with one more person, there was still more than needed. She liked to cook in excess. The food was good, and I could tell Gavin liked it from the million comments he made about how wonderful it was. After listening to him talk for awhile, his accent was less startling, but it was still very noticeable. I don't think even after years of knowing him that I could fully adjust to it. Not that it was a bad thing, it was just interesting, and extremely different from the almost accent-less area I lived in. I knew people at school would more than likely be obsessed with it. 

That thought created a new fear in me. What if people at school liked Gavin so much that he ignored me? I didn't know him that well yet, but I already knew he was extremely likable and charming. I didn't want people to not like him, but I hoped he would be my friend. It was a whiny, selfish though, but I just wanted a friend, too. 

I stayed pretty quiet through the rest of the night, letting Gavin and my mom take over the conversation while I was trapped inside my mind. Before I knew it, Gavin was attempting to help my mom clean the dishes. 

"No, Gavin, really, thank you for offering, but I'm fine with doing the dishes. Why don't you let Ray show you around the neighborhood, that would be fun," my mom insisted. 

Gavin accepted and pulled me out the door, while at the same time yanking me out of my thoughts, for the best. 

I took him around the neighborhood, even though there wasn't much to see. Not to far away from my house there was a coffee/doughnut shop and a gas station right beside it, but that was about all until you actually got into town. 

Gavin was amazed by the doughnut shop. "You mean we could walk here every morning and get donuts? I am so up for that." 

"I mean, I do have a slight budget, considering I don't have a job and all the money I get is from my mom, but yeah, sure, we can get donuts if you want," I replied. 

As we were walking back to my house, after seeing what little was in my neighborhood, we had the pleasure of walking by Michael's house, just when he was taking out the trash. He and I made eye contact for a few awkward moments, which caused him to glare as soon as he registered what he was seeing. Then he looked over to Gavin, and a confused expression swept over his face, clearly thinking, 'Who the fuck is this?' 

He didn't say anything, not surprisingly, he just returned to glaring at me, before rushing back to his front door and going back inside. 

Gavin stood beside me, silent for a few seconds, before he said, "So, that's one of your best mates, I'm guessing?" 

I laughed, glad that Gavin had a sense of humor. "Yeah, that's Michael. He'd probably be sick if he got to close to me. Good old Michael." 

"Did you do his sister of something like that?" Gavin asked. 

"No, I never did anything to him, I'm pretty sure I have only ever been nice to him. I think he just has a permanent stick up his ass." 

"We'll just have to pull that out for him sometime, then," Gavin said. 

I laughed, doubtful of that, but let the conversation go, not wanting to focus on bad things for much longer. 

We returned home and decided it would be best to laze in front of the TV until we went off to bed. Gavin had to start school the next day, he didn't get much time to adjust to his new environment, so he decided to go to bed early. I stayed up watching TV for awhile, before I eventually got bored and went to my room. 

I couldn't get to sleep because I was too nervous for the next day. I didn't even have to start a new school in a new country the next day and I was the nervous one. I didn’t know what the day would bring me, if I would have a new friend for at least another day or lose the opportunity as soon as he found out how lame I really was. After a few hours, I finally managed to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I'm keeping up with my schedule, that is very cool.Things will definitely pick up next chapter, I almost made one big chapter but then I decided to split it up, but don't worry! I hope someone likes this story, and don't be afraid to comment if you would like to. Thank you so much for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

Due to my lack of sleep, I was not enthusiastic about waking up the next morning. Gavin, on the other had, was completely prepared for his first day. 

I was awoken by a banging on my door. "Ray! Wake up! Life is happening, come on, you don't want to be late! Well, you might, but I don't, so yeah, by default, we don't want to be late," Gavin rambled on. He would have continued if I wouldn't have told him to calm his ass down. 

"Alright, then, I guess you're up," he said before walking down the hallway, toward the kitchen. 

I sighed, and hauled myself out of bed and into the shower. Why did school have to start so damn early? 

Once I was ready and slightly less dead, I joined my mother and Gavin downstairs, and was surprised by a hefty breakfast waiting for me on the table. 

"You rock, Mom," I said before devouring my food. 

Gavin chuckled from his spot at the table, which he had managed to claim after only being here for a day. "You're not much of a morning person, are you?" he asked. 

"Definitely not," my mom said, and then continued to tell an embarrassing story about a time when I had gotten sent home from school once because I tossed all my papers on the floor and fell asleep. I groaned, because that happened in the third grade, and my mom still wouldn't let me live it down. 

Gavin thought the story was hilarious, and asked my mom to tell more. 

"Um, no thanks, we definitely have an education to get, we can't be late for that, now, can we, Gavin?" I said, slightly mocking him. 

"Do we get to go wait for the bus now, then?" Gavin asked. 

I nodded and he immediately forgot about the stories and hopped out of his chair, and looked around for his school bag. While he was doing that, I finished my breakfast and put my plate in the dishwasher, before kissing my mom on the forehead and thanking her for all she had done. 

She smiled and said, "Have a nice day, okay, dear? Help Gavin feel welcome." 

I nodded, even though I was pretty sure Gavin didn't need my help to feel welcomed, he was confident enough to get it himself. 

We were the first ones at the bus stop, which was abnormal for me, since I usually did my best to show up at the last minute to avoid Michael or anyone else really. 

As other kids arrived, some looked at Gavin in confusion for a second, but none of them asked any questions. Michael walked up last, glared at me and ignored Gavin. Apparently being associated with me was plenty enough reason for Michael to hate someone. 

The bus arrived and Gavin pulled me forward so we could be the first ones on. For the first time this year, I had someone to sit with on the bus. 

"Is there someone you normally sit with that'll be mad because I stole you?" Gavin asked as he glanced around the bus. 

"Nah," I said, not bothering to go into any further detail. 

The bus ride was fairly uneventful, and ten minutes later we pulled up in front of the school. 

"Aw, this is adorable! Wow!" Gavin exclaimed, and by the look on his face I could tell he was genuine. 

"Alright, if you say so. I personally think it's old as fuck and nasty looking, but you can think whatever you want," I said. 

My school was slightly toward the small side, so several people were intrigued by Gavin because they knew he was new. I ignored them, and I was pretty sure that Gavin didn't even notice them as I walked him to the office. 

Gavin got his schedule and because we were in different grades, we didn't have any classes together, except study hall, which was actually pretty cool. We also were in the same lunch, thankfully. 

"Do you want me to show you where your first class is?" I offered. 

"Yeah, that's actually be great. Maybe you could be my personal chauffer for the day?" Gavin asked with a wink. 

I laughed and walked down the hallway towards Gavin's first class. 

"Okay, just so you're not the asshole walking down the wrong side of the hallway later, we use them like you drive on a road. An American road though. Just stay to the right side, and you're less likely to be trampled," I informed Gavin. 

He nodded, and I hoped he stored that information for later, because I was not kidding, the hallway is hardcore shit. 

We finally arrived in front of his first period, and I took a mental note of what room it was. 

"I'll meet you here after this period, okay?" I asked, and Gavin nodded with a smile. 

"Thanks!" 

I waved as I walked off to my first period. I was extremely nervous earlier, but now I was much more calm and relaxed, partially because of Gavin. I had only known him for a day, but I felt like we were on the path to being great friends, as lame and cliché as that it. I felt comfortable and normal with him, it just felt we were meant to be friends. Whether or not that was true, I still felt marginally better. 

Three periods later, I met up with Gavin yet again. But to my surprise, when I arrived outside of his classroom where we had said we were going to meet, he wasn't there. I tried not to let my hopes be crushed, but I could feel them beginning to break. It sure didn't take him long to make better friends.   
I sulked all the way to the lunchroom, and headed toward my usual, empty table. I didn't have the energy to mess with getting food,, so I decided to spend the whole period thinking about my dismal life. 

Before I got to my table, an unmistakably English accent called my name, "Ray! Over here! Come on!" 

Gavin was waving and smiling at me, already seated at a half full table. 

I didn't even process the situation, I just walked over to his table. 

"Do you want to sit here? It's okay if you had other friends who you'd rather sit with, but-" Gavin started, before I interrupted him. 

"No, it'd be cool to sit here, as long as you guys don't mind," I said, looking to the other members of the table for the first time. The first thing I noticed was the facial hair, and the second thing was the half lidded eyes, and that was when the image clicked. Gavin, believe it or not, was sitting with Geoff Ramsey. 

Geoff might not have been the most popular person in the conventional way, but everyone knew Geoff, and few people were actually friends with him. He had an air of leadership about him, and the rumors of all of the things that he had done were numerous and extreme. There was a very good chance that none of them were true, but that didn't stop the fact that he was mysterious and so much cooler than me. 

In addition to Geoff, there was Jack, Geoff's side kick in a way. I knew even less about him than I didn't Geoff, but he seemed more laid back and carefree. He was also a little less scary, in my opinion. 

Based on the little I knew, I would never have guessed they would let me sit at their table, considering I'm a tiny, surprisingly Caucasian, Puerto Rican freshman. Just by looking at me, you could guess at how big of a nerd I was. Despite all this, Geoff said, "Sure, I don't care. What's your name kid?" 

"Ray," I replied as I took a seat beside Gavin. 

Gavin smiled and added, "I'm living with him for the next six months, he's introducing me to the American culture and so on." 

Geoff nodded and began eating his sandwich, apparently done with the conversation. As the period progressed, I learned that Gavin had met Geoff in his Precalc class, which they shared, and had instantly latched onto him. 

"Sorry about not waiting for you, too. I was afraid if I didn't follow Geoff he would completely ditch me, and I couldn't have that, could I?" Gavin said with a smirk. "I have to fully annoy someone before they can permanently ditch me, you know? Can't let 'em get off that easy." 

"You surely getting close though, Gavin, I'm sure in a week I'll want to murder you. Your voice is already fucking with my head," Geoff said, looking completely serious, but I could tell he didn't mean it. He'd have to actually like Gavin to have him sit with him at lunch, and to also take in his dorky host family. 

Jack and I didn't say much during lunch, we mostly let Gavin and Geoff carry the conversation, which they did easily. Soon enough, the period was over, and I had to lead Gavin to his next class, but before we left, Jack said, "I'll see you guys tomorrow." 

Gavin smiled and nodded while I just stared back, awestruck. Was this going to become a permanent thing? 

"They're cool, huh?" Gavin said as we walked through the hallway. "I personally think I have a gift for finding the coolest people around. I mean, I found you, right?"

I laughed at his his statement, but in reality, I though he really did have some sort of 'gift'. But I think it might have been more about the fact that Gavin just attracted certain people to himself by his radiant personality. I don't think I was included in the 'coolest people around' category, I think i just landed in the right situation, which was good enough for me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter woo! Thanks to everyone who reads this, and I love your support! Anyways, as you might notice, there are probably some dumb mistakes in this that I just don't see. I don't have a beta, but I would love one, I really do want to write things to the highest quality possible, so if anyone is interested in helping me out, feel free to ask or talk to me! you can leave a comment or even email me (caseylovesnumbers@yahoo.com I know its lame,this is my second, like extra email for fic stuff or weird things like that) or even message me on tumblr, because I'm just starting a new blog relating to this sort of stuff. The url is ijustlikerayvin and yeah, i know that's lame too. I'm good at being lame. Anyways, if none of this applies to you, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll have another for next week!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Study hall was normally a quiet time when I started to work on my homework for the night so I would have more time to myself at home.

Study hall was normally a quiet time when I started to work on my homework for the night so I would have more time to myself at home. Now, study hall was different, it had been infected with Gavin. He had managed to convince the grumpy study hall monitor to let him come sit at my table and talk. I had no idea how he had done this, since in my few months of having study hall, I had seen many people try that and only a few succeed. 

"Are you some sort of magician?" I ask him when he sits down across from me. 

"Nope, I'm just more charming than you can ever hope to be, Ray, dear," Gavin said, using his 'charm', which made it seem like an even bigger joke. 

"My ass is more charming than you, dick," I replied. 

"Well, you might have a point there," Gavin said, wiggling his eyebrows. 

"So has American public school made you want to go home and cry to your 'mum' yet?" I asked, moving on with the conversation. 

Gavin shook his head, "It's actually been much better than I thought. I've yet to be shoved into a locker and the food didn't walk off my tray. I think I'll survive another week or so before I'll need my mum." 

I laughed at the fact that he actually said mum. I knew it was an actual thing that was said, it was just strange to hear someone say in a serious manner. Not that our conversation was serious, we were constantly becoming more and more comfortable with each other, and more and more joking along with that. 

"Well aren't you a brave boy," I said. "But the bravest thing you've done was sitting with Geoff, holy shit, I don't even know how you did it, I'm barely able to look at Geoff without fearing for my life." 

"Why? He isn't that scary, is he? He comes off as a bit closed off, but underneath he's a big squishy teddy bear," Gavin said, illustrating his story with hand gesture that didn't aid in his story telling skills. 

"Sure, whatever you say," I replied, my thoughts on Geoff not changed. 

Ten minutes later, our conversation had completely shifted. "So what if that kid over there was an agent for the government. Would you be acting any differently right now?" Gavin asked. 

"Of course. I'd be hiding my drugs, what else? Would he be good at his job or a lower class agent?" I questioned in return. 

Gavin ran his hand through his hair and turned to glance at the kid in question. "Well if he's stationed at a public high school, he must not be the most capable. He's on the mall cop level of secret government agents. Do you think he would turn in kids for breaking dress code or would he be strictly concerned in illegal matters?" 

"Probably just illegal matters. I don't think he'd actually care that much, whenever he'd see something overly illegal he'd just be like, I guess I should take care of it." 

Before we could continue our conversation, the final bell rang. Gavin and I both stood up and gathered our books, which had been completely ignored for the whole period. 

"Do you want me to meet you at your locker?" I ask Gavin, already knowing he would say yes. I was actually uncertain he would even be able to find his locker on his own, because he had been struggling with that all day. He apparently wasn't the best at directions. 

He nodded, and ten minutes later we were walking out to the bus together. 

"Did you get a lot of homework to do to catch up in any of your classes?" I asked as we walked on the bus. The bus driver, a little, cranky old man, was in his normal mood, which wasn't pleasant, and he simply glared at us as we got on. The bus was packed, considering Gavin and I got out pretty late because I had to go all the way to his locker and walk him out. I recognized the faces, people that I had ridden the bus with all year and haven't talked to once, yet many of them were staring at Gavin in wonder. The talk of the new kid from England had gotten around fast, and everyone wanted to see him. Strangely enough, no one really had tried had to talk to him or get to know him. 

Just as I was thinking that, a girl with a pink jacket and a neatly done braid stood up in front of us, blocking our path to an empty seat. "Hi, are you new here?" the girl asked Gavin, batting her eyelashes. I almost started laughing, because I didn't think anyone actually flirted like that. 

That's because no one has ever flirted with you, my inner sarcastic asshole said, and it would have been funny if it weren't so painfully true. Even though I was 15 and in high school, girls were still a foreign subject to me. I was lame as hell. 

"Why, yes I am," Gavin said. 

"Well, since you don't know anyone, do you want to sit with me?" She asked as she flipped her braid over her shoulder. I wanted to laugh, because this was a little bit ridiculous. 

"Shannon!" Another girl, who was sitting in the seat the braid girl was in before she had blocked our path, said, sounding irritated. "You always sit with me." 

"Come on, you can make a sacrifice for the poor new kid. He doesn't know anyone," The first girl, apparently named Shannon, replied to her friend. 

"Fine," the other girl sighed. 

"Um, this is very nice and everything, but I'm probably just going to sit with Ray. I'm Gavin, though, nice to meet you!" Gavin said before forcing his way past Shannon and pulling me with him. 

We plopped into a seat just as the bus began to roll forward. Gavin began laughing, hiding his head in my shoulder. "I guess it was a nice offer," he said between spurts of laughter, "but who even does things like that? She was clearly sitting with the other girl, it was pretty rude to her." 

"Rules of proper etiquette can apparently be ignored when in search for the dick," I said, which caused Gavin to laugh even harder, causing him to fold in on himself. 

The people in the seat next to us glanced at us, distracted by Gavin's laughter, but didn't pay attention for long. 

By the time the bus pulled up to our stop, Gavin had finally stopped laughing. As we passes by Shannon, the tension between her and her friend was easily felt, since the other girl had her hood pulled up and was completely turned toward the window. 

Once we were off the bus, I said, "I think you might have ruined a friendship." 

"Eh," Gavin replied, "I didn't even do anything. If it was that easy for it to get ruined, it was obviously already headed that way." 

"Wise words from Mr. Free," I commented. 

"Of course they were, you shouldn't expected anything less from me," he replied, which caused me to raise a suspicious eyebrow. 

As I opened the door to my house, Gavin asked, "Is your mom home from work yet?" 

"No, she won't be home for another couple hours." 

"Sweet, we should play some games while she's out," Gavin suggested. 

Before I could agree to his plan, I found a note on the fridge. 'Ray, can you and Gavin go to the store and get some things I need?' followed by a list of food items my mother needed. 

"Normally, I would agree, but Mom wants us to go grocery shopping, sorry," I said, holding out the note for him to see as proof. Surprisingly, Gavin's face lit up in response. 

"That's fun too, I've never been in an American market before!" he exclaimed. 

"That went over much better than I though ti would," I said, and he smiled and shrugged. "We can go quickly, and maybe we'll still have time to play something before my mom gets home." 

Two hours later, I learned that my efforts to shop quickly were impossible when it cam to shopping with Gavin. I didn't know if he was always like this when he was shopping, or the new experience caused him to be extremely curious, but either way every little product interested him to no end. 

"Come on, Gavin," I said eventually, finally hitting my limit of looking at cereal. "We have actual shopping to do, you know." 

Gavin stood up from where he was crouched, looking at the bottom shelf of cereal. "Okay. Party pooper," he muttered quietly, but still loud enough so he knew I would hear. 

"Boohoo," I replied, and went to find the things on my mother's list. 

Gavin followed behind me, pretending to pout and occasionally throwing things into the cart I was pushing. 

As we passed he fruit area, Gavin veered off to get some grapes. I decided to stay where I was and to wait for him to come back. I watched him as I waited, thinking about who knows what, when I heard a crash, which snapped me out of my thoughts. I was met with the image of Gavin on the floor, and the whole table of apples beginning to fall after him. 

"Oooh oooh oooh, no, eeeek!" was somewhat close to what Gavin said as he scrambled away from the falling apples, clumsily attempting to stand. I could only watch the scene in horror and embarrassment. 

Luckily, there weren't many people around to witness what had just happened. Those who were seemed just as dumbstruck as I was, so nothing had happened yet, we were all just watching the apples fall and roll away. 

Gavin, on the other hand, found his feet and began running. He came right by me and grabbed my arm, pulling me along with him, abandoning out cart. He pulled me all the way out of the store and didn't stop until we were a good distance away. We came to a stop, and gasped to get our breath back, since we were both apparently in horrible shape. 

"Holy shit," I said between breaths. "I didn't even know that was possible." 

Gavin stared at me for a bit, before his gasps in an attempt to breathe turned into vigorous laughter. "Your face, Ray, your face! It's absolutely golden!" 

I could only guess what my own face looked like, probably stunned more than anything. "I can never go there again. Do you know how much money we just cost them? That was a shit ton of apples." 

Gavin began to laugh even harder, and his laughter proved to be contagious, because soon I was laughing, too. 

"I was just trying to keep the doctors away, you know," Gavin said about an hour later after we finished our shopping at a second store and were walking back to my house. "Better safe than sorry, you know." 

I smiled at him, pleased with everything that was Gavin. The jokes, the accent, the stupidity, it was all absolutely wonderful. I had never met anyone like him before, I wasn't even sure anyone else like him existed. It was probably for the best though, I knew I could only handle on Gavin Free at a time. 

"I'll race you back to your house," Gavin said as soon as my house was in sight. He didn't even wait for me to say anything before he took off running, for the second time that day. 

"Gavin, stop, damn it! You have the eggs, Gavin, I swear to god if you trip and we have to go to the store for the third time I will lock you outside for the night! Gavin, seriously!" I chased after him, ignoring the fact that I had easily breakable things in my bags to. 

Today, despite everything, was the best day I had ever had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, yay!!! I hope you like this one, I tried to make it a little bit more entertaining, and it's got some good old friendship fun. I really like this so far and I feel like this story might go on for awhile, as long as that's okay with you guys. Thank you so much to everyone who reads, I really appreciate it, especially is you comment or anything like. Enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next day at school, the word that there was a new British kid has spread throughout the entire school, and everywhere I went I heard whispers about it.

The next day at school, the word that there was a new British kid has spread throughout the entire school, and everywhere I went I heard whispers about it. 

During my health class, we were given a study hall like day to work on some homework the teacher gave us, which truly meant that we got a free day to talk and gossip to each other. Due to the fact that I didn't really have any friends around, I sat at a lab table by myself and attempted to work on my homework, but that was made impossible because a very loud table of girls behind me were talking about, believe it or not, Gavin. 

"He's so hot, he's got an amazing accent," One of them said. 

"Have you talked to him already?" Another asked. 

"Oh, yeah, definitely, he rides my bus, and we had an awesome conversation," the first voice said. 

I had to hold back laughter, because I knew the first speaker had to be the girl from the bus yesterday, and I witnessed their conversation which was not "awesome" by any definition I knew. 

"You better watch out, Shannon, I heard he ate lunch with Geoff yesterday. Maybe he's in a crime ring in England and they sent him over here to work with the leader," An entirely different girl said, and I could barely believe someone was actually saying that. 

"Oh, man, who did you hear that from? Should I feel safe to even come to school?" A girl asked, panicked. 

I put my head down in my arms and sighed. How were they even real? That was by far one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. And how quickly did they change opinions of people, literally seconds ago they were talking about how cute Gavin was, and now he's a crime head of England. 

"Having a rough time?" A voice said that clearly wasn't talking to the girls behind me. I raised my head to see the girl who was sitting with Shannon on the bus later. She looked nice and sincere, but judging by her choice of friends, I was doubting it. 

"Nothing, just, Gavin's my friend and they're just dissecting everything about his life, and they don't even know him," I stopped myself from ranting, remembering who I was talking to. I didn't wan to talk bad about her friends in front of her like they were doing to me. 

Instead of saying whatever I was expecting, she nodded, "I know, man, you don't even know how bitchy they can get. I've heard the absolute worst things from them. But yeah, I'm done, I've hit my limit with their bullshit. Like yesterday, on the bus, you were there right? Yeah, well that wasn't even that bad in the grand scheme of all the shit things Shannon has done, but it pushed me to my breaking point. I mean, if you know what the say about other behind their backs, you'd be stupid to not think they do the same to you." 

The girl stopped talking and smiled, "But enough of that, I'm Lindsay, and I think we should work together on this packet." 

I decided to go with her and not comment on her small speech. "I'm Ray, and that'd be great because I've been stuck on number five for ten minutes." 

Twenty minutes later, both Lindsay and I had learned that neither of us knew the answer to number five, and could not be bothered to look it up. We gave up on the homework, like the rest of our class had done long ago. 

"I hate this class," Lindsay said, closing her book to use as a pillow. "It's stupid and I'm stuck with a class of stupid freshman." 

There was a moment of silence before I said, "Yeah, I know, they're all dumbasses, wow." 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to include you in that, you seem cool," Lindsay apologized. 

"Nah, it's alright, I think it's a good thing to know when you're stupid, like, raise awareness to it. Warn the innocent, that kind of shit," I replied. 

"I wish everyone felt like that, maybe that would help some of them," Lindsay said wistfully. 

"Why didn't you take Health your freshman year?' I asked. 

"I didn't feel like it, I was trying to put it off for as long as possible, because it's useless. Shannon forced me to take it with her, we've been neighbors forever and pretty good friends for almost as long. She's started getting bitchier as she started high school , and as you can see, I've finally hit my limit. And now I'm stuck in a class with far too many freshman," she explained. 

"At least you didn't wait until your senior year, because the freshman would've seemed even worse then," I said. 

As I finished talking, a wad of paper flew past Lindsay's head, and it the wall beside us. She picked it up and unfolded it to find a crude drawing of people having sex. She held the people out for me to see and said, "Are you sure about that?" 

"You got me there." 

As we talked more, I learned that Lindsay was cool as fuck. and really funny. When the bell rang, I felt the best after Health class than I ever had before. 

"Talk to you later, Ray," Lindsay said, booking it out of the classroom. 

 

 

When I got into lunch a few minutes later, I found Gavin sitting with Geoff and Jack again, and I took a deep breath to gain the courage to walk over and take a seat. 

"Heeeeeey, Ray!" Gavin yelled out, unnecessarily loud, causing people from a wide radius of tables surrounding ours to look over. 

"Shut the fuck up, asshole," Geoff said. 

Gavin just smiled at me and continued, "So I was thinking we're all going to become super best friends, and we'll have sleepovers and braid each other's hair." 

Jack scoffed and Geoff chuckled a little bit. 

"I'm in as long as I get to braid Jack's beard," I said, which caused Geoff to enter a full on laughing fit. 

"Wait," Gavin protested, "It was my idea, I should be the one to braid Jack's beard!" 

"Sorry, man," I said, patting Gavin's shoulder, "first come, first serve." 

"I don't think you even used that phrase correctly," Jack said. "And there's no way I'd let either of you idiots touch my beard." 

"But I can?" Geoff asked. "Yes, being friends with you is finally paying off, after all these years." 

"We can just braid each other's hair, then," Gavin said to me. "You can close your eyes and pretend it's Jack's beard. But in all honesty, I'm sure my hair is a hundred times better than his beard." 

"I don't doubt that, I've been dreaming about your luxurious hair since you got here, man," I replied. 

Gavin smiled and make a show of running his hand through his hair, which only made it stick out even more than normal, "I know, it's pretty amazing." 

"You two seem extremely heartfelt in your statements," Jack commented, looking back and forth between us. 

"No one asked you, Jack," Gavin said, which caused Geoff to crack up laughing, probably more from the fact that Gavin sassed Jack more than anything else. 

As we were walking to my house from the bus stop later that day, Gavin said, "I think Jack and Geoff are liking us more and more as we spend more time with them. I think we're passing their test," which was surprisingly accurate and intelligent for Gavin. 

I was pretty sure he nailed what was going on between us and Jack and Geoff. We were passing a test that I'm pretty sure no one else had been able to before. We were fully gaining their friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad I got this chapter up, I have so much work to do because the school years almost over and I have a bunch of important tests and stuff coming up. Because of that, there's a chance I won't be able to post a chapter next week, or it might be a short one if I do. I'm going to try my best, though, don't worry! Thanks to everyone who reads this story!!


	8. Chapter 8

As I was walking down the bus aisle one day, I was pulled into a seat. 

"What?" I asked, turning to see that Lindsay had yanked me down to sit beside her. 

"You're sitting with me today," Lindsay said, which led to Gavin squeaking out his confusion. 

"But, but... but," He squeaked, sounding a bit like a lost puppy. I actually felt pretty bad by the sad look on his face. 

I was about to tell Lindsay that I didn't think this was the best idea when Shannon, who was a couple rows behind us, said, "Oh, Gavin, you can sit with me now!" 

Gavin looked back and forth between Shannon and I, and eventually surrendered and went to sit with her, his shoulders slightly slumped down. 

Lindsay leaned over to me and whispered, "Don't worry, I'm not doing some sort of set up for Shannon or anything. After one day of sitting with her, Gavin should have enough sense to stay far away. I'm just looking out for you guys." 

I didn't fully understand her logic, because I already knew Gavin didn't like Shannon, he didn't have to get to know her very well in order to know that much, but I went with it anyways. Lindsay was fun to talk to. Her conversation was vastly different from Gavin's, and I wasn't constantly nervous when I was talking to her as I was with Geoff and Jack, so it was a nice break. 

When we were about five minutes away from school, I turned around to look at Gavin. He was already looking my way, and when we made eye contact, he stuck his tongue out at me. I laughed and repeated the gesture, followed by flipping him off. For the second time that morning, he squeaked loudly, and I could hear Shannon say, "What are you doing? Are you not listening to me?" 

"How could I not be listening to you when you talking right into my ear?" Gavin said with a noticeable amount of sass, but apparently not enough for her to notice. 

"That's good! So have met Missy yet, she's such a bitch," Shannon rambled on, but I stopped listening and felt insanely bad for Gavin. I would have to buy him an ice cream cone after school to make up for it. 

"Aren't you two cute," Lindsay said with a smirk. "You've only known each other for a little, right?" 

"Yeah, about two weeks now. We got along fast. I guess you haven't really talked to Gavin yet, have you? He's amazing, even though he's dumb as hell most of the time," I replied. 

"You seem like great friends," she said, before changing the subject. 

I didn't notice who we were sitting by until we stopped at the school and I was getting up, only to be knocked back down. It was none other than Michael who was beside us. 

"Get out of my way," he grumbled, before storming off the bus. 

"Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, didn't they?" Gavin said, suddenly standing right behind me. "Right now I'm the only one who has reason to be be in that bad of a mood." 

"What was, Gavin?" Shannon called out. 

"Nothing." Gavin stated blankly. "Come on, Ray, let's go." 

I listened, and waved goodbye to Lindsay. 

 

"That bus ride was hell," Gavin said later that day as we were walking to lunch later that day. "It was absolute hell. Her voice drains the life out of you, and it never ends. And she insulted every single person she knew, just during the bus ride. I didn't even know that was possible!" 

"Sorry about that," I said. "Lindsay wanted someone to sit with her today, I didn't want to let her down." 

"It's okay," Gavin said, "its over and I now know that I can survive hell. I'm a stronger man, now, actually." 

"Really now," I said before pushing him so that he almost falls over. 

He squeaked, yet again. "Ray! How dare you!" 

"Maybe you're psychologically stronger, but you're still a stick." 

Gavin chuckled. 

When we got to our table, which was normally occupied by just Jack and Geoff, another person was seated. 

"Who the bloody hell is this?" Gavin said, more confused than offensively. "And why is he in my seat?" 

"Because I already like him more than I like you," Geoff said. 

"Hmmpf. Well, I get to sit beside Ray now, you can't stop me!" Gavin asserted. 

"We weren't going to, I assure you," Jack said. 

The other kid, who looked to be at least a junior or a senior, but no one I recognized, smiled politely as we sat down, "I'm Ryan. I just switched schools, my parents moved here. And I just followed Geoff, because he was in my first period and I liked his shirt. I plan on sticking around." 

"Switching schools halfway through the year, that's fairly suspicious. Were you selling drugs? Are you a murderer?" Gavin asked, appearing genuinely serious, but I knew enough by now to tell he was joking. 

"Gavin, that's almost exactly what you did, you don't have any room to speculate. How do we know you didn't come here just to escape the British police?" Jack pointed out. 

"But you know I would never do anything like that!" Gavin exclaimed. 

"We really don't. You seem like just the person to do something insanely stupid. Really, now I'm considering checking your records or whatever," Geoff said 

"My mom would've already known if he did anything bad, I think we're good," I said before Gavin could spend the entire day arguing, which would lead him to not eating his lunch, which would result in him eating half of the contents of my house later that night. He's done that before, I certainly didn't want it to happen again. 

Gavin continued to eye Ryan suspiciously. "I still don't believe you, but I'm willing to sacrifice it if you give me your cookie." 

Ryan, surprisingly, handed it to Gavin without saying a word. 

"Okay, Ryan is absolutely top, I don't even know what I was thinking!" Gavin concluded, before eating his newly received cookie. 

"You're a fucking dumbass," Geoff said, with possibly the first smile I had even seen him with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm so sorry I didn't post a chapter last week, I had a bunch of exams, and then I got sick, and I'm still sick, but i was very dedicated to writing some of this, so here you go! Thanks to everyone who reads, I hope you enjoy it!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a lot of work to keep Gavin entertained all the time.

"Ray, I'm so bored," Gavin whined sitting in the chair beside the couch, watching me play Xbox. 

"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked, not really paying much attention to him. Gavin had been antsy all day, and nothing I did seemed to fully occupy him, so I eventually gave up and started playing games instead. At first he went off to bother my mom, and since she loves Gavin so much, she actually entertained him for a little while, encouraging to blabber on about his life, but she left for work an hour or so ago, which lead Gavin to come back to me. 

"Ray. Ray. Ray. Ray. Ray," Gavin persisted. He wanted me to stop playing and cater to his needs. After a whole day of dealing with this, though, I wasn't going to give up so easily. 

Gavin sighed angrily and walked into the kitchen. I continued with my stuff, even though I knew that I would give up eventually and do something with Gavin. 

"Geoff, please, please, please, let's hang out. Ray's being an annoying little prick and won't do anything with me, and I'm so bored!" I heard Gavin say, apparently talking on the phone to Geoff. I laughed at how determined Gavin was. He continued in bugging Geoff until I heard him walking back into the living room. 

"Talk to Geoff," Gavin demanded, shoving the phone in my face, blocking my view of the screen. I glared up at him, but I was met with a completely straight face from Gavin, so I decided to comply. 

"Hello?" I said into Gavin's phone, careful not to mess it up. His screen was shattered, and yet he still managed to use it, which I didn't understand. He needed new one very badly. 

"Why aren't you entertaining the little bitch?" Geoff asked, sounding venomous. 

"He's a lot of work, I can't handle him all the time. I'll buy lunch for you on Monday if you keep him occupied for a few hours tonight, please. For the sake of my sanity." 

Gavin scoffed and lightly kicked my shin. "Prick." 

Geoff though for a moment before saying, "Fine. Where's your house, I'll be over in twenty minutes." 

I rattled off directions while Gavin squealed. "I like Geoff more than you now Ray." 

I laughed an gave Gavin's phone back, "Sure you do. He'll probably want to kick your ass by the time you're done today." 

Gavin sat down on the coffee table in front of me. "Even so, I'll still like him more." 

True to his word, Geoff waltzed into my house twenty minutes later. Gavin, who was sitting upside down on his chair in an attempt to amuse himself, rolled off his chair. "There's my best friend!" he called out, running toward Geoff and attempting to climb on his back. 

"I don't think so," Geoff said just as Gavin stumbled and fell down. "Come on, let's go." 

I waved goodbye to them, and Geoff returned the gesture by flipping me off. 

As soon as the door closed, I felt myself relax. there's a point where you need a break from a person, after being with them all the time. Gavin didn't even annoy me much, he was awesome, but he was a lot to handle. I sat back and basked in the silence. It was... peaceful. 

I went back to my game, but for some reason I couldn't focus, which didn't make sense because I had just gotten rid of the biggest distraction in the world. It eventually got to the point where I couldn't focus at all and I had to stop because I was tired of getting repeatedly killed. I tried to think of something else to do, but everything I thought of involved Gavin. it struck how much he had migrated into my life. I looked around my house, and Gavin was everywhere. His shoes were mixed in with mine, his book bag sat beside mine, against the wall, ignored for the weekend. A chair sat on its side in the kitchen, obviously knocked over by Gavin, and he had half a drink sitting on the counter. In the bathroom, his various products and hair gels were spread around, his towel was hanging from the rack. Even in my room there were traces of Gavin, his clothes that managed to sneak in, his laptop which he had left on my desk. He was everywhere, yet he wasn't actually here. 

It felt empty. 

Guilt started to rise in me. I should have done something with him, I was just being stupid and self-centered. Maybe this is why all my friends left, maybe I deserved it. 

As the dark clouds enveloped me, I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, regretting my earlier actions. I stayed like this until I faded into sleep. 

I had dreams of when I first met Gavin, about how he lit up any room he was in and occupied all of my attention. I dreamed about his smile, his laugh, his fucking accent. 

"Ray. Ray. Ray Charles. Ray. X-Ray. Hey, does anyone ever call you X-Ray? That would be an awesome nickname," I was woken up by Gavin's question, and for a second I thought I was still dreaming. When my vision cleared and I saw Gavin standing beside my bed, I realized he had actually said that. 

"No, you're the first to do that," I said, yawning as I sat up. 

Gavin smiled and lit up my room just like I had dreamed. "Well I think I'm going to keep that up, X-Ray." 

I smiled, and remembered how I had gotten to my bed. "Oh, uh, how did your time with Geoff go?" 

"It was great, Geoff knows all the cool places around town," Gavin said, and continued to fill me in on his evening with Geoff. 

Once he finished I said, "I'm sorry for being a dick earlier. I don't know what was wrong with me." 

"Never mind that, I had a great time tonight anyways," Gavin brushed it off. "But if you really want to make it up to me, we can watch the movie I got." 

"That'd be great," I said, even though there was no telling what movie Gavin had gotten. I would stick through it anyways. 

Half way through the movie, and halfway through the large bowl of popcorn that Gavin and I had made, I thought about how weird my dreams from earlier were. I had never really dreamed about a person like that before, I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I let the thought slip from my head though as I focused on the movie, which was surprisingly good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm almost done with school for the summer, so hopefully these chapters will get longer and STUFF will begin to happen. Thanks again to everyone who reads this and feel free to tell me how you feel about it!


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm sick of this class," Lindsay said, tipping her chair back. "This shit is useless." 

I nodded in agreement, shading in the corner of my paper. 

Lindsay abruptly sat back up in her chair. "Let's get out of here," she said, standing up and gathering her stuff. 

I looked around the room at out classmates, who weren't really paying attention to us, and the teacher, who actually wasn't paying attention either. I guess no one would notice if we left. The goody two shoes in me resisted, though. 

"We can't just leave," I said, to which Lindsay just gave me a look. A look that said that I was an idiot and we were leaving. I didn't really have enough power to argue. 

I gathered up my books as well and we walked straight out of the room, and no one batted an eyelash. "I cannot believe that's possible." 

Lindsay shrugged. "No one really cares that much. We're not causing trouble, so we don't matter." 

No one says anything to us in the hallway either. We walk right past the main office, and no one notices us, except Michael, who was picking up something from the office. 

He stopped and stared at us as we walked by, towards the front doors. 

"What are you doing?" He asked in the annoyed tone he always used to address me. 

"None of your business," Lindsay said, staring him down. 

Michael's expression shifted to a look I couldn't quite decipher. It looked like fear, obedience, fascination, shock, or any mixture of those. He simply nodded and backed away, actually walking backwards to continue to stare at us. 

Once he was out of range, Lindsay laughed, "That kid's weird." 

I just nodded, lost at what had happened in front of me. It was strange, and I didn't feel like dwelling on it. 

 

"X-Ray, you have to save me, I'm dying," Gavin groaned, laying down on his bed, curled completely up in his blankets. 

"Oh honey, it's just a cold, you'll be fine tomorrow," my mom said, walking into Gavin's room and setting a glass of water and some medicine on his bedside table. 

"I don't think I will be. This is my last day on Earth. Say your goodbyes," Gavin continued, burying his face completely in his arms for dramatic effect. 

My mom just laughed at him. "Ray will be saying his goodbyes, he has to leave to catch the bus, but I'll stay home with you today if you'd like. I can go into the store and pick up things you want." 

Gavin let out a noise of what I assumed was agreement and I patted him on the back and said, "Stay strong, buddy," and left. 

It was my first day going to the bus stop alone in a long time, and it felt a million times more lonely than it ever had before. I stared at my shoes and prayed for the bus to hurry up. 

I could feel Michael watching me, like he had been the whole week. I had no idea why, it was weird and I was vaguely afraid that he was going to beat me up. I thought that maybe he was finally reaching his breaking point, and was going to go insane. I was fairly sure that was coming, because he really didn't seem like a sane person. 

I was saved from any possible acts of insanity from Michael when the bus arrived. I went to sit in my normal seat, amazingly empty without Gavin. Lindsay was sitting with someone else, too, a girl that she had befriended that she liked way more than Shannon. Sitting alone was no big obstacle for me, or it hadn't ever been before. Now it was a little bit harder. 

The rest of the day passed much like the bus ride, much more quiet than normal. 

Lunch was okay, Jack and Ryan kept the conversation going a lot more than Geoff or I did, which wasn't surprising. Usually Gavin would have some sort of input, which would often times bring Geoff or I in, but without him we were much quieter. 

About halfway through lunch, Geoff spoke up, "Hey, do you guys want to come to my house on Friday? We can hang out, play some games, I don't really care." 

"Oh, invited into Geoff's layer? What's the occasion for?" Ryan asked. 

Geoff shrugged, brushing the question off, but Ryan stayed persistant until Geoff finally said, "My mom doesn't believe I have friends other than Jack, and I need her to stop being pissed at me." 

Jack cracked up laughing, "I totally believe she would say that." 

Ryan started laughing, too, while I stayed quiet. I kind of knew what he was dealing with it. Except I really didn't have any friends, and I was shit at making them without Gavin's help. 

"Yeah, I'll come. I'm sure Gavin would come too, he would never miss an opportunity to go to someone else's house and break something. Which I promise he will do. Hide any expensive, breakable items in advance," I warned him. 

"I'll come, too, as long as my parents don't need me. I'll probably be fine," Ryan said, which reminded me that I knew almost nothing about Ryan and his life outside of school. I knew about Jack, he studied a lot, hung out with Geoff just about as much. Geoff's life was still somewhat unknown, but I knew almost all of the rumors I heard about him weren't true at all. Ryan was still entirely mysterious. 

"You know I'll be there," Jack said. 

"Cool," Geoff said, calmly, but underneath his indifferent expression, I could see a hint of a smile. We might have just made his day. 

Ryan changed the subject, then, and instead started talking about his math test that he took earlier. 

"She took points off my test because I used the calculator on my phone. She only said we couldn't use our actual calculator, she said nothing about the ones on our phones! It can't even do the advanced stuff, I'm just too lazy to multiply big numbers on my own. I shouldn't be faulted for thinking outside the box," Ryan said. 

"That's not really outside of the box, it's completely cheating. For all she knew, you could've been googling the answers," Jack argued. 

"But luckily for her, I wasn't," Ryan said, like it made his argument valid, which it did not at all. 

I chuckled at their argument, which continued until the bell rang. In the hallway after lunch, which I usually walked through with Gavin, some ran into me, almost knocking me over. When I looked to see who it was, it was none other than Michael, who didn't even bother to apologize, but after all, why would he, considering that it was more than likely on purpose. 

He was a messed up person. 

 

As soon as school was over I got out my phone to see if I had gotten any texts from Gavin. I had sent him one in Health, just asking if he was okay. He didn't text back, so I assumed he was asleep. After school, he still hadn't replied. 

I got on the bus, and hoped the trip went by quickly. I busied myself by playing a game on my phone, so I was completely distracted until someone sat down beside me. When I looked up from my phone, I saw that Michael was sitting beside me. 

"What are you doing?" I asked, calmly so it didn't provoke him or anything. I really didn't want to die. 

"I can do whatever the fuck I want, okay?" He snarled. 

I sat, dumbfounded. I had no idea how to handle this situation. Where in my life did I mess up so badly that it led me to this situation? 

Silence, I decided, was my best option. 

A few minutes later, Michael spoke again, this time much calmer than the first. "Look. I'm trying. I know I'm not doing well, I really can't stand you, but I need your help." 

I stared at him, and he looked back, completely sincere. 

"What the hell did I ever do to you? Really? And now you need my help, so you decide I'd be totally okay with it. I may be nice, but goddammit, I'm not an idiot," I replied. 

Michael sighed and put his head in his hands. 

"I didn't like you because you and your asshole friends treated me like a freak when we were younger. I just wanted to hang out with you guys, but you were too good for me. That messed me up, you know? It's hard to be completely friendless as a kid," He confessed, and I began to remember some events from my grade school years. Michael would follow us around, and we would laugh and ignore him, purposely exclude him. I wasn't sure why we didn’t like him, but no one else did, so I went with it. I didn't even remember any of that, because we really just pretended he wasn't even there. 

I realized that I wasn't as innocent as I believed. 

"Yeah and I was an asshole, but I believe it was kind of rightfully so. Maybe I took it a bit far, but it was rough. I'm just saying, we don't have to be friends. but I really need you to help me out. Maybe this could help us make things right and move on," Michael offered. 

For as insane as I thought Michael was, what he was saying made a lot of sense. And I felt really bad. I had been alone, I had experience how terrible that was, and it was only for one semester. Michael dealt with our hate for years. He went through hell. I owed him something, or at least as much as I could do. 

"I'll help you, if I can. What do you want?" I asked. 

Michael blushed and stared down at his lap. I almost laughed, but I stopped myself from being even more cruel to him. 

After a few moments he said, "You're friends with Lindsay. And I have the biggest crush on her, but no matter what I do, she doesn’t notice me. You could help me get to know her." 

Michael wanted me to play matchmaker, which was hilarious considering I had literally no romantic life whatsoever. I was probably the worst person to ask. 

But I was friends with Lindsay, it would be easy for me to tell her things about Michael, to make some suggestions or comments. It would be fairly easy for me to at least introduce them to each other. 

"I can help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor little Michael. I hope you guys still like this and are excited for it to continue. Thanks for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

As soon as I got home, I went straight to Gavin's room. "Are you still alive?" I asked. 

"Just barely. But luckily for you, you'll get to see me for at least a little longer," Gavin croaked, and I actually felt bad because he sounded awful. He looked just as rough as he sounded. 

"Do you need anything?" I asked. 

Gavin shook his head, apparently not wanting to waste his voice. His hair was a mess, not his usual styled mess, but actually sticking up in every direction, and combined with his paler than normal face, made him the ultimate picture of sickness, and I wanted to do anything I could to help him get better. 

"But would you keep me entertained? It's so boring to be stuck here all day," Gavin requested. 

"Sure," I replied. I grabbed his desk chair and rolled it beside his bed so I could sit and hang around for awhile. Then, we sat in silence for awhile, Gavin's coughs and wheezy breaths occasionally breaking the silence. 

I was so goddamn awkward sometimes, I had no idea what to do now. 

"You're doing a shitty job of keeping me entertained, you know? Tell me a story or something," Gavin said, smirking at me, which stood out from his sickly appearance, and was typical Gavin. 

"Okay. You'll never guess what happened today. Michael sat with me on the bus, and I was fully expecting him to punch my lights out, but instead he asked me for a favor. He wants me to hook him up with Lindsay," I said. 

"What?" He said. 

"Yeah, I know. I would've thought he'd just ask Lindsay himself before he'd ask me for help, since he hates me so much. But I guess he can't really handle girls on his own, or something like that," I said. 

"So did you tell him to piss off?" Gavin asked. 

"No, I said I'd help." 

"What?" He exclaimed, which probably wasn't good for his voice. 

"I owe him, because apparently I was an ass to him when we were young. He might not even be that bad, when he doesn't hate you," I don't know if I actually believed what I was saying. 

"But aren't you and Lindsay, you know, into each other?" Gavin asked, completely serious. 

I stared at him for a second, unable to believe what he just said. "That's fucking hilarious. Lindsay is like my sister or something like that. We would never date, holy shit, where did you even get that from?" 

Gavin looked back at me, then at the wall, back at me, and then at the ceiling, before he burst out laughing. "Why I, just, well, uh, huh, I just didn't, hmm," and then his laughing fit turned into a coughing fit. 

His coughing fit went on for awhile. He sat up to try to stop the coughs, but it didn't work. I pat his back softly while he coughed. After a minute or two, he stopped. 

"Are you okay? Do you need some water?" I asked. 

Gavin shook his head and smiled. "No, I'm perfectly fine, don't I look like it?" 

I laughed, "Sure, you look like your in great shape." 

"Keep talking, I'm bored," he insisted, and I listened. I told him all the rest of the details from my interactions with Michael today, and when I ran out of things to say in that area, I went on to just talking about my entire day at school. 

"Oh, and yeah, you should get better by Friday, Geoff wants us to come over to his house so his mom can see he has friends. I told him we really don't like him and it actually disgusts us to sit with him at lunch, but then I felt a bit bad, so I suppose we should go. As long as you're not still dying," I joked. 

"Oh, I'm in, whether or not I'm dying. And you can't fool me with your stories, I know you would never say anything like that to Geoff, you would be terrified that he'd murder you," Gavin pointed out, which I couldn't disagree with. 

"Ray," My mom said, opening the door to Gavin's room, "why don't you let Gavin be for awhile, he needs to rest. You can come help me make dinner." 

"Alright," I said, even though I knew Gavin didn't think he needed rest, and that he would probably be mad that I left him all alone. He did need to rest and get better, his cold was kicking his ass. 

"I'll be back later, Gav," I said as I left his room. 

"Ray! You can leave me all by myself! Poor, little, old, sick Vav can't be all on his own," Gavin argued. 

"Did you just call yourself Vav?" 

"Did I?" he asked, look seriously confused. 

"Yes, you did," I said, "Take a nap, you need the rest, Vav." 

 

 

The next day, Gavin was still just as sick. His cold obviously wasn't a 24 hour thing, which left me alone yet again on the bus, until Lindsay saw me. 

She sat down with me, "Is Gavin still sick?" 

"Yeah," I answered. "He thinks he's dying. He'll probably be okay by tomorrow or the next day. He's not helping himself, though, he's too antsy to sit around doing nothing all day." 

"I haven't talked to him much, but I know enough to know he's got to be going crazy," Lindsay said. 

I nodded. After a few moments, I decided I might as well start helping Michael out as soon as possible. "So, Lindsay, you don't have a boyfriend, right?" 

She laughed, "Oh yeah, of course I do, I just haven't talked about him or hung out with him once in the whole time I've known you. Of course I don't have a boyfriend. Why? Please don't tell me..." 

If Gavin hadn't asked about Lindsay and me having something going on, I would have had no idea what she was hinting at, but now I was perfectly aware. 

"No, no, no, no, no, nothing like that, don't worry!" I said. 

"Okay, great," she sighed with relief. 

"Wow, nice to know I'm that undateable," I joked. 

"No offense. Why'd you want to know if I was single, though?" She asked. 

It was this part where I had no idea what to do. I stared out the window at the trees and houses rushing by, attempting to come up with the proper thing to say. Nothing was coming to me. 

"Alright, you're going to think I'm crazy and you're probably going to tell me to fuck off, but you should talk to Michael Jones, give him a try, if you're willing," I said, after deciding that the easiest and most effective way would be the blunt way. "He had a huge crush on you, and maybe you guys would be perfect for each other." 

Lindsay looked at me with shock on her face. "When did you turn into a matchmaker? Did a new love genie Xbox game come out or something?" 

I laughed because that was her first response, and probably the most fitting one. "Nah, I'm going to suggest that somebody make it a game, and I'm going to use this as my proof." 

"Of course, of course. Who is this dude? I don't think I've ever even met him, how does he have a crush on me?" She asked. 

"He rides this bus. He's just seen you around school, I'm not entirely sure of the specifics, all I know is that he likes you. I'm not saying that you have to date him or anything, I'm just suggesting the idea." I said. 

"I'll think about it," she said, and I accepted that willing. I was doing as much as I could for Michael. 

 

"Will you point this kid out for me?" Lindsay asked me during Health. "On the bus today or whenever?" 

"Sure, no problem." I replied. The bell signaling the end of class rang then, and I headed off to lunch alone for the second day in a row. 

To my surprise, Michael started walking with me. 

"Have you said anything to her yet?" He asked, looking a bit like a desperate puppy, which was a very interesting look for Michael, especially considering that when he normally looked at me, he looked like a raging bull. 

"Yeah. We'll have to see what happens," I said. 

Michael's face lit up. "But she's not completely repelled by me?" 

"Not yet." 

"Fucking awesome," He said as we entered the crowded cafeteria. "Well, um, thanks, I'll be off now." 

He walked off, probably towards his usual table. For some reason I found myself watching him, and considering things. Whenever I was around Michael when he wasn't being a complete asshole, he actually seemed like a pretty decent guy. I wondered who he was friends with. Because of that, I found myself watching him, as creepy as that was. 

He had sat down at an empty table in the corner, and at first I thought he was just waiting for his friends to show up. After about ten minutes, though, he was still alone, eating his lunch and working on some homework. I considered for the first time that maybe he still didn't have any friends, and this was what he did every day. I honestly had never noticed him sitting all by himself in the corner of the commons, he was nicely concealed over there, and maybe that was his idea. 

"Ray. Ray. Are you listening at all?" Jack asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

"No, not really, " I answered truthfully. "I'll be back in a little bit." 

I got up from my table and walked towards Michael's solitary corner of the cafeteria. 

"Hey, come sit with me," I said as I reached his table. "I know I'm not the best of company, but I am fairly confident I beat homework." 

Michael looked up, startled, saw me, and looked back at his homework. "Are you sure about that?" he asked. 

"Absolutely." 

"Alright," he said, gathering his stuff and fixing his glasses. "But the second you piss me off, I'm going to leave." 

"Yeah, that's how I feel about Gavin sometimes. You'll learn soon that you won't leave, you'll deal with the annoyance. After awhile you'll learn you didn't mind it much, anyway," I said as we walked back over to my table. 

Jack, Geoff, and Ryan watched us as we walked over, confused about what I was doing. When I got to the table, the just looked at us. 

"This is Michael," I said as I sat down. "Is it cool if he sits with us?" 

"Yeah, fine with us," Jack said, probably nicer than anything Geoff would say. 

"Cool," I said, and introduced Michael to everyone as he sat down. He looked uncomfortable and out of place at first, and I wondered if I had made a mistake by asking him to come over, but soon Ryan made me confident in my decisions. 

"So, Michael, how much do you believe in aliens? Like not at all? Or maybe? Or are you one hundred percent sure you were abducted last night?" Ryan asked. 

Michael smiled, and I could see him settle down instantly. Maybe Ryan was some sort of expert situation reader, and he knew exactly what to do. I had just kind of thought he was crazy, but maybe he was more than that. I still did not know enough about him. 

"I don't want to say it's completely impossibly, but I really doubt it," Michael replied. 

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I was definitely abducted last night. They have very good manners, surprisingly," Ryan said, and I was suddenly very sure that he was crazy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I missed a week!!! I'm so lazy sometimes, it's unbelievable. Don't worry, I'll try my best not to do it again. I hope you all like this, and thank you so much to everyone who reads this!! I'm really excited to say that after I finish with this story, I have another one already planned, and I think it'll be amazing. So yeah, there are lots of cool writing things going on right now, including some relationships picking up in this story (took me long enough, huh?)


	12. Chapter 12

"Ray! I am perfectly fine, completely top, do not listen to a single lie your mother might say. Please, let's leave the house, I am no longer ill, and I will die if I have to spend a single second longer in here," Gavin ambushed me as soon as I opened the door to the house, backing me into the corner by the door. He was fully dressed and had a light in his eyes that had been significantly duller the past few days because of his cold. It appeared like he was telling me the truth about no longer being sick, but I could tell by his determination and he remarks about not listening to my mom that she thought differently on the subject. 

"Okay, okay, we can go somewhere, as long as you give me a few minutes to drop off my stuff and tell my mom where we're going," I said. 

"Alright, just don't listen to her lies, okay?" he asked, staring me down as if he could manipulate me into taking his side. There was a good chance he was able to do that. 

I nodded and waited for him to move out of my way, which he didn't. He just continued to stand in front of me, staring me down in a way that made me want to fix my hair and make sure I didn't look like shit. It was weird. 

"Gavin? Are you going to let me out of the corner anytime soon?" I asked gently. 

He snapped into reality, and backed away, "Yeah, sure, I was just messing with you, you know? Haha and all?" 

I walked past him, shaking my head. He was still apparently a little mentally out of it from his cold, even if he didn't physically appear to be sick. 

I dropped my book bag off beside on of the couches and found my mom watching TV. 

"Is Gavin cured or lying to me?" I whispered, leaning into her ear so Gavin wouldn't overhear from where he was still lingering by the front door. 

"He's still got a fever, but he's also determined to leave. He shouldn't really go outside yet, but some fun won't kill him. You guys can go, just don't let him over do it," She said, and I nodded before kissing her on the cheek. 

"Bye, Mom, do you want us to get dinner or be home before dinner?" I asked. 

"You guys can get dinner, I think I'll go shopping with my friend while you're gone," She answered. 

I walked back towards where Gavin was standing. 'You ready, Vav?" 

"Of course." 

 

 

It turns out that while Gavin did indeed have great plans of getting out of the house, he had no idea what to do afterwards. 

"Maybe I could've thought this through better," Gavin said as we sat on a bench in the middle of the park, where we ended up because we had nowhere else to go. 

"No, this is fine, we can sit here watching various families walk through until we scare everyone away. What will the teenage hoodlums do? They'll never know until it hits them," I remarked. 

"Do you just want to go get food now?" Gavin asked, staring at his shoes like he was a child that had gotten in trouble or something. 

"Hey, hey, Vav, look at me," I said, nudging his shoulder with mine. 

He looked up, the light in his eyes still bright, but more sad than before. 

"I didn't have anything planned tonight. This is just as good as anything else I would have done." 

Gavin smiled, "Really?" 

I nodded, and he regained his hopeful energy from before. "Well come on then, the food won't eat itself!" 

"Yeah, and cannibalism is a last resort," I replied, and followed Gavin as he walked off. 

We didn't ever end up doing anything exciting. We ate, Gavin rambled on about impossible scenarios, "But, really, what if animals insisted on wearing shoes, would you give them shoes or make them get them themselves?", and then we went home and played some games. It was nothing special, it was actually quite the opposite, and it involved to much physical activity on my part, but for some reason I wouldn't trade a second of the day for anything else. 

 

 

"What?" Gavin said. 

"You heard me, you and Ray should bring a bag of chips or something tonight. I don't even care what, we just need more food," Geoff said at lunch the next day. 

"I think it's traditional hospitality rules that the host provides all the food, Geoff," Ryan pointed out. 

"Do you think I give a shit? If you don't bring food, you can just not come. I'll invite that kid in your place," Geoff said nonchalantly, pointing at Michael. "What do you say, do you want to come?" 

"Uh, to what?" Michael asked, speaking for the first time since we had gotten to the table. I wasn't sure if he would sit with us again, I wanted him to, but I didn't know if he was just going to go back into his solitary corner. 

"We're going to Geoff's house tonight to hangout and mostly convince his mother he has friends," Jack explained. "You can actually come, too, we're not just having you replace Ryan, he's going to come. It'll be cool, you should come." 

"Your mother has to be convinced you have friends," Geoff mumbled under his breath. 

"That was the worst come back I have ever heard," Gavin laughed. 

"You must not be able to hear yourself then," Geoff replied. 

"Oh, got'em," I said. 

"I'll come, as long as you don't mind," Michael blurted out, as if he had just made up his mind. 

"You bring some food and you're in," Geoff said, more worried about not having to waste money on buying food for everyone than anything else. At least he had his priorities figured out. 

We continued to plan details for the night, and by that I meant Jack made most of the plans, while Geoff gave his input occasionally, while Gavin and Ryan talked about things unrelated to the actual plans and Michael and I just listened. 

"I've never seen you outside of the lunch room, this is going to be an experience," Gavin told Ryan. "You're kind of like a teacher, like, they're not supposed to exist outside of school." 

"Are you saying my sole reason for existing should be to entertain you for half an hour everyday and other than that I'm irrelevant?" Ryan asked. 

"Don't be so snappy, Ryan. Is the fact that you don't exist outside of school a touchy subject?" Gavin asked. 

"You might want to shut your mouth now, you don't know if Ryan is some mass murderer or something outside of school. You don't want to be the next victim," Michael said. I was surprised he talked, but Gavin accepted it easily. 

"Exactly! I have no idea what he does in his free time! He looks like a crazy ax murder type of guy!" Gavin exclaimed. 

"That doesn't even make sense! I have done nothing to you!" Ryan defended himself. 

"Well, you wouldn’t have, yet, would you? You want your victims to be surprised," Gavin reasoned. 

Ryan just threw his hands up in the air, defeated, while Michael and I laughed at them. 

"Hey, assholes, be at my house by six with food," Geoff said, not minding the conversation he had just interrupted. 

"Alright, boss," Gavin said, saluting Geoff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to put the part in this chapter, but then I realized the chapter would be like, three times longer than any other chapters, so you'll just have to wait until next week for that, sorry! I'm super excited about this, thanks to everyone who reads this and super thank you to everyone who comments, or is just supportive in anyway, you guys keep me going :).  
> Thanks for reading and enjoy!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geoff's party and the aftermath of the party.

"We should probably get two different things," I said to Gavin as we walked through the grocery store, looking for food to bring to Geoff's. 

Gavin nodded, and I could tell he wasn't actually paying much attention to me. He was looking down every aisle, looking at every sign, even staring down other customers as we walked to the snack aisle. I let it go because I had learned that this was how Gavin was in the store, no matter what I did. 

I turned down aisle 15, where the bags of chips and boxes of crackers and such where located. "Maybe we can get some plain chips and then, like, a bag of pretzels? Do you think they'd eat pretzels?" 

After a period of time with no response, I realized that at that point I was mostly rambling to myself, because Gavin was long gone. I turned around to see what had captivated him so fully, and I found him making faces at a baby. 

The child was maybe six months old, riding in the seat of his mother's cart while she was busy reading the various ingredients and nutritional information about different snacks. The little girl was kicking her feet and giggling, apparently at Gavin. 

He kept going, sticking his tongue out, then pulling on his ears and puffing up his cheeks. The girl's giggles continued, getting even louder. Gavin looked ridiculous, making stupid faces like he was, but at the same time, it was the cutest thing I had seen in awhile. 

Gavin's next move was to pull his shirt over his head and move his arms around like he was lost and confused after losing his head. The baby started flapping her arms to mimic Gavin, and when she smacked the bar in front of her, her mother finally looked back at her. She found two teenage boys staring at her child, one with his head inside his shirt and his arms flailing around wildly. 

"You might just want to keep you head in the to avoid facing the audience you've collected," I whispered to Gavin, which caused him to stop moving. As expected, Gavin didn't listen to me, and pulled his shirt down immediately. His hair was sticking up all over, similar to his chosen style, just more messy and unintentional. When he saw the mother staring at him, a blush spread onto his cheeks and he smiled sheepishly. 

"'Ello. Your daughter's adorable," He said to the mother. 

She smiled in reply and said, "Yes, and she apparently thinks you're hilarious." 

"Well, yeah, um, great day to both of you," Gavin blurted out before grabbing my hoodie's sleeve and pulling me away. 

"Bloody hell, that was so embarrassing, she was just staring at me!" Gavin exclaimed when we were a couple aisles down. Despite his embarrassment, his eyes were lit up and he was laughing slightly. "I'm a dumb little prick, aren’t I?" 

"Yes, you definitely are. I didn't grab our food that we need to bring for tonight, you know? You pulled me away too quickly. So now we'll have to wait until they're out of that aisle," I told him. 

"Why, what took you so long?" Gavin asked, sounding surprised I hadn't gotten what we needed. 

"I was a little distracted by the doofus making faces at the baby!" I argued. 

"Well, it's not my fault you can't keep you eyes off me," Gavin replied. 

"You are absolutely ridiculous." 

"You're a rotten shopper." 

"That doesn't even make sense, you're the one who keeps getting distracted by literally everything." 

"I make perfect sense," Gavin argued. 

"No, you don't, Vav." 

As we were standing in the middle of the store, having out joking little argument, the lady with the little girl pushed her cart by, eyeing us skeptically. Gavin made eye contact with her and turned beet red, and stopped talking completely. 

After she passed, Gavin let out a puff of air, "That lady must think we're insane." 

"I think we might be insane," I returned. "Let's go get those chips now." 

 

 

We showed up promptly at 6:30 because of our grocery store adventures. We also lost some time because Gavin insisted on buying a red bull, which I though was a bad idea, but eventually he had won that argument. 

Geoff opened the door and immediately said, "You're late, assholes. You better have food." 

"Great to see you, too, Geoff!" Gavin said, completely ignoring what Geoff had just said, and walked right by him into his house. "I'm here, lads! So is Ray!" 

Geoff shook his head, still standing in the doorway. "We have food," I said, passing a plastic grocery bag to him. 

"Good, you guys aren't completely dicks like Ryan. He just waltzed in and gave me five dollars. I knew he shouldn't have been allowed to come," Geoff complained. Before the last couple of months, if Geoff had said this, I would've thought he was completely serious and that he hated Ryan with an intense passion, but after actually getting to know Geoff, I had learned that he acted that way about people he really liked, like Ryan and Gavin. He was just a strange person. 

"Well, come on in, make yourself at home, Gavin's already at pro at doing that." 

I followed Geoff through the doorway and into his house, which was really nice. There were pretty paintings, plants, and decorations spread throughout his front hallway, and his living room as I entered it. Gavin, Ryan, and Jack were all seated throughout the room. There were two big couches and a couple of chairs in the room, which made the room see a hundred tomes bigger than my cozy little living room. The television, which Jack and Ryan were currently playing a game on, was huge, too. 

"Ray! Come sit with me!" Gavin begged from the couch he was seated at, all alone. I listened, and walked over to his couch to watch Jack and Ryan play. 

Twenty minutes later, Gavin and I were still sitting on our couch, his feet had been moved up onto my lap, but Ryan had switched places with Geoff, so he was playing against Jack instead. A woman with brown hair pinned up neatly to her head and a very fashionable outfit entered the room. 

"Are all you friends here, honey?" She asked, looking at the four of us. "It's so nice to see all of you, I'm Geoff's mom, and I'm really just so glad to see that he has so many nice little friends!" 

"Mom," Geoff said, sounding pretty irritated, but not takign his eyes off the screen. 

"Don't take that tone with me, Geoffrey. Have you offered them drinks yet? Are any of you thirsty, dears?" 

Geoff sighed, while Gavin enthusiastically said, "I would love something to drink! It's a shame Geoff didn't offer them to us awhile ago!" 

"You've been here for like twenty minutes, Gavin," Geoff grumbled. 

"That's no excuse, Geoff!" His mother said. "I can show you the kitchen if you like," she said to Gavin. 

Gavin nodded and stumbled off the couch, and then turned back so he could grab my hand and drag me along with him. The kitchen was just as nice as the rest of the house I had seen, with clean, matching appliances, granite counters, and nice cabinets. My mother would be very jealous. 

"What would you like to drink, boys?" Geoff's mom asked. 

"Water would be fine, thanks," Gavin replied. 

"Same for me," I seconded. 

She got us our cups of water, and we accurately thanked her. "So, tell me a bit about yourselves," she prompted. 

"I'm Gavin, and this is Ray, and we're Geoff's friends. I'm a foreign exchange student, and I stay with Ray." 

"That's amazing! Are you enjoying yourself here in America?" She asked. 

"I don’t know if it’s the place itself as much as the people I'm surrounded by, but I'm having an absolutely top time. I'm loving it here," Gavin replied. I smiled, glad to know that Gavin said he was enjoying himself here, despite being stuck with possibly the lamest kid he could've found. 

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a knock on the front door, which apparently couldn't be heard in the living room over the games. 

"I'll go open that," Geoff's mom said, heading in the direction of the front door. 

A minute later, she returned with Michael trailing behind her, looking nervous. 

"Another one of Geoff's friends came! I'm really surprised he has so many nice little friends, he worries me sometimes. Especially since I've never met anyone but Jack. You all will have to come back again soon, don't let Geoff keep you away," she said, laughing, before she excused herself and left. 

Michael stood there, staring after her for a few seconds. "She's a little worked up, huh?" 

Gavin smiled, "I think she thinks Geoff is a completely freak who no one will talk to. It's pretty amusing. I'm surprised she didn't offer you anything to drink." 

"Oh, she did," Michael said. "Right after she said 'Why hello! It's so great to see another one of Geoff's friends!' She has no idea that I'm his friend, I never said as much. What if I was just a door to door salesman that she invited in?" 

"That just might break her heart," I said. Michael smiled and nodded in agreement. 

"Let's go back to the living room, I want to challenge Ryan, I know I can beat him," Gavin said, hopping off his kitchen stool and walking into the living room. 

I walked with Michael, showing him the way. "I didn't think you were even going to come," I said. "Not that I didn't want you to, I just wasn't sure you even liked us." 

"Yeah, neither was I at first. But you guys don't actually seem that bad, as long as you're not being complete dicks. Although Gavin can be annoying as dicks," he said. 

"Yeah, that's Gavin," I said, possibly too fondly. 

"Hey, Michael, glad to see you came!" Jack said with a warm smile when he saw us enter. 

Michael nodded and went to sit down in an empty chair. I sat down on the couch I had been sitting on earlier, which was now empty of Gavin, since he had gone to challenge Ryan, which it looked like he was already losing. 

Three rounds of games later, with Gavin losing every one, he challenged Ryan to yet another round. Ryan agreed, probably because he enjoyed crushing Gavin's dreams of actually winning for once. 

Geoff sighed. "Well, I've already seen this, do you guys want to order some pizza?" 

Michael's stomach chose the perfect time to rumble with hunger. 

"Holy shit, I guess you are ready for food, alright," Geoff said, heading to the kitchen. Jack, Michael, and I followed him. 

Despite Ryan not bringing his share of the food, there was still a good array of snacks. Jack brought a whole box of popcorn, and Michael's mother sent him with three bags worth of food they had sitting around the house. 

"She was, uh, a little bit excited I was actually leaving the house," Michael said, staring at the floor, looking embarrassed. 

"I know what you mean, you've seen my mom, haven't you? She's fucking nuts because of this," Geoff said as he got on a laptop to order pizza. 

Michael laughed, "Yeah, my mom is actually relatively calm compared to yours." 

"I think my mom was excited to have a quiet house to herself for the night," I added. 

"Yeah, mine didn't really mind either way," Jack said. 

"Well, now that we know how our mom's all feel, should we discuss our dads or move onto a conversation that is actually fun?" Geoff asked. 

My heart beat sped up a slight bit, and Michael caught my eye. He had known my all though school, unlike the other two, so he knew what happened to my dad. Michael's look wasn't as much of pity as it was from everyone else when my dad was concerned, he just looked cautious. It had been years, I was over needing the pity, but I still didn't like talking about my dad's death. It's not really my favorite subject, no matter how much time passed. 

"Yeah, let's not," I simply said. "What kind of pizza are you going to get?" 

Geoff shrugged. "What do you want?" 

We offered up our suggestions, and by the time we placed our order, we had three different pizzas on the way. 

"Should we go back in there, or just in here until Gavin admits defeat?" Jack asked. 

"Let's stay. It might take awhile for Gavin to give up, though. He's a persistent little bitch," Geoff said. 

"What?! I heard that!" Gavin squealed from the living room, somehow hearing us for only that statement. 

"Good," Geoff called back. 

By the time the pizza arrived, Gavin was still trying to beat Ryan, and still losing. When Ryan heard the pizza was here, he put his controller down and walked away, leaving a disappointed Gavin behind. 

Gavin recovered quickly, though, the pizza instantly cheering him up and making him forget his losses. 

"I beat him in every way in a game for about an hour, and then all it takes to cheer him up is pizza? Dang," Ryan said. 

Gavin smiled in between bites of his pizza, "I'll beat you next time!" 

We were all seated in various places in Geoff's kitchen. Ryan, Jack, and I were seated at the table like the proper people we were, while Geoff and Michael were seated on barstools at the counters. Gavin, of course, was sitting straight on the counter, not concerned at all with politeness. 

"So, Geoff, have you not brought your girlfriend home to meet your mom? I'm sure that would make her so happy, just seeing all of us pleased her, I can't imagine what it'd be like for her to see that you have a real, live girlfriend," Jack said, chuckling a bit. 

All of us looked at Geoff, gauging his reaction. I had no idea that Geoff had a girlfriend, he never said anything about her to me, but we weren't that close, so I guess it made sense. 

"My mom knows about Griffon," Geoff said calmly, staring Jack down. 

"But she hasn't met her? What a shame! You know, I've never met her either. That's weird. Had anyone met her?" Jack prompted. 

"She's fucking real, Jack, goddammit, leave me alone," Geoff grumbled. 

"Now, what, what? I wanna know!" Gavin said, excited by the situation. 

"Geoff has said he's had this older, wiser, totally hot girlfriend for the last year, but I've never met her. I'm ninety percent sure she's not real, but he insists she is," Jack explained. 

"I'm not going to defend myself to you idiots. Griffon is real and wonderful," Geoff said. 

"Is Griffon what he calls his right hand, maybe?" Michael suggested, causing everyone, except Geoff, to crack up laughing. 

Geoff glared at Michael, "You better keep your mouth shut." 

"Yeah, Micool, watch out, Geoff might use Griffon to hit you!" Gavin cackled, rocking back and forth on the counter. 

"That's it," Geoff said, getting up from his stool and walking over to Gavin, pushing him off the counter so he could tackle him. 

Gavin didn't stand a chance, he was caught off guard and he was still laughing. "Ah, Geoff, not fair! Michael said something first, stop!" Gavin called out, laughing as he fought against Geoff. 

"I don't care, you annoy me more," Geoff said, not struggling at all to pin Gavin to the tiles of his kitchen floor. 

"Help, help, help!" Gavin called to us. 

We looked between each other, and realized that none of us were going to get in between the two of them. "You're good, Vav, just keep trying, you'll get it eventually," I said in response. 

"Geoff, Geoff, I'm sorry, you're girlfriend is completely real and wonderful and most definitely not you're hand!" Gavin said, in hopes to get Geoff to let him go. 

"That's what I thought," Geoff said, standing up and brushing his jeans off as if nothing happened. "You guys want to go play some more games?" 

We agreed, and headed back to the living room. Gavin hopped on Michael's back. 

"I'm injured, give me lift, would you?" 

"It's literally ten feet away, asshole," Michael protested, but didn't put Gavin down, which caused Gavin to look back at me and smile and wink. 

Four hours later, we finally get tired of gaming and decide to watch a movie. Gavin picks a lame comedy to watch, and we grab pillows and blankets and set up for the night. With all the couches and chairs, there should have been plenty of room for all of us to have a place to sleep, but Gavin ended up squeezing in my chair with me. 

"Dude, there's literally a chair right over there," I said, pointing to the spare chair. 

"But it's not nearly as big and comfy as this one. Please, Ray?" Gavin begged. 

I sighed, but nodded. I didn't really mind sharing with Gavin, it would just be a bit tight and possibly uncomfortable. But nothing was going to stop me from poking him in the side frequently, which made him squeal every time. 

"I don't want to go to sleep," Gavin said when Geoff turned the lights off, the only light now coming from the moonlight through the windows and the TV screen. 

"Why?" Michael asked from the couch he was laying on across the room. 

"I'm afraid Ryan's going to kill me. Or steal my hair and study it, I'm not sure," Gavin said. 

"What are you even talking about? I've never even done anything the slightest bit creepy!" Ryan said. 

Even Geoff laughed at that, "Today when you were playing Minecraft you trapped a cow in a hole, and you wouldn’t let it out." 

Ryan shook his head in denial. "Edgar put himself in the hole, it was completely his decision." 

"You're a creepy motherfucker, Ryan, just admit it," Michael said. 

Ryan continued his denial for another ten minutes, before everyone else decided to let it go, for the time being, at least. 

We watched the rest of the movie quietly, even Gavin calmed down enough to pay attention to the movie. The first movie ended so we put the second one in. Soon after that, everyone started to fall asleep, including me. 

 

 

At some unknown hour in the morning, I was woken up by someone poking my side. 

"Ray, Ray, Ray, wake up, come on, wake up and help me," Gavin whispered into my ear from beside me. 

"What do you want?" I mumbled, still groggy and lost from my sleep. 

"I need you to help me, I'm going to mess with Geoff, pay back for him tackling me earlier," Gavin said. 

I sat up, becoming more aware of my situation. I was still at Geoff's, and everyone else but me and Gavin were asleep. 

I didn't really want to risk my life playing a prank on Geoff, but at the same time it was too tempting not to. I also didn't want to not know what Gavin was going to do, just so I wouldn't become another victim of them prank. 

"Alright, I'll help you. What are your plans?" I asked. 

I could see Gavin's huge smile in the moonlight, and it made my stomach flutter for a moment. I ignored it, and followed Gavin as he got off our chair and ventured into the kitchen. "Don't trip on anything," I warned him. 

"I would never do such a thing," Gavin replied. 

Once we were in the kitchen, a safe distance away from everyone else, Gavin told me his plan. 

"I'm going old fashioned and I'm going to sharpie on his face, it'll be hilarious. Maybe we could also like, put some whipped cream or something on him? Whatever we can find." 

"Sounds like a plan. How about you look for the sharpie and I'll look to see what else they have," I suggested. 

Half an hour later, Geoff had a ridiculous handle bar mustache and a monocle drawn on his face, with whipped cream all over his hands to look like gloves. Even in the dim lighting from the window, he looked absolutely ridiculous, and he was probably going to kill us in the morning. 

As we went back into the kitchen, the front door opened and the hall light came on. I stood still, terrified that someone was breaking in. Gavin seemed to be thinking the same thing, since he nervously looked from me to the hallway. 

A tall man entered the kitchen and flipped the light on, much to our terror. I was frozen in my place, unable to do anything. 

"What? Who are you?" he asked. 

"I could ask you the same thing," Gavin said, trying to play it cool, which almost made me smile considering I knew he was scared shitless. 

"Oh, wait, I remember something about Geoff's friends coming over, that must've been tonight. I'm Geoff's father, nice to meet you, I don't really care about your names, I'm too tired to remember them, so yeah, continue with whatever you were doing, I'm going to bed," the man said before turning the lights back off and leaving. 

We stared at each other before we moved again, just taking in the ridiculous scene we just witnessed. 

"He seems like a nice chap," Gavin finally said. 

I nodded in agreement. 

Gavin and I giggled as we put all the equipment back in their proper places, before we went back into the living room to go back asleep like nothing happened. Going back to sleep was difficult, even though I was extremely tired. 

I poked Gavin in the side, "You're going to be his first suspect, you know." 

He threw his arm around my shoulders, "And when then happens, you'll defend my honor, right?" 

I laughed and poked him again, "You have no honor." 

He gasped quietly, "Not even my Ray will defend me, what will I do!" 

"Okay, maybe I'll be your alibi. I'll say there's no way you could've gotten up without me noticing or some shit like that," I said. 

He tightened his arm around me, "Thanks." 

After that, we tried our best to get to sleep again. This time, it was surprisingly easy for me to doze off. 

 

 

The next morning, I was woken up by Geoff's loud voice. "What the fuck is this, why is there whipped cream all over my hands?" 

I did my best to hold back my laughter as everyone else started to wake up, too. Geoff was standing beside the couch he had slept on and he was staring at his hands in confusion and disbelief. 

"You guys are so fucking dumb," He said as he walked away, probably to clean his hands off. 

I stared at my friends, who were all awake now and were all waiting for him to find out about his face. 

"Does my face have anything on it?" Jack asked from his chair. 

I shook my head. 

"Okay, neither do any of you. So should we tell him, or just wait for him to stand in front of a mirror?" Jack asked. 

"Let him find out on his own, it'll be more fun," Gavin said. 

"We know you did it Gavin," Ryan said. "And I'll have to tell Geoff so he doesn't attack me." 

"What?" Gavin squealed. "I would never do anything like that, I think you're just setting me up, and you're the one who did it!" 

"You've been giggling since the moment you woke up, dumbass, we know you did it," Michael said. 

"You're turning on me, too? Maybe you and Ryan were a team! You both did it!" Gavin accused. 

"Yeah, I don't think Gavin did it, I would've known if he got up," I defended Gavin. 

"Cut it out, Ray, we know he did it," Ryan said. "No one else is dumb enough to do anything like that." 

While they did have a point, I still had to defend Gavin. Before I could say anything else, Geoff came storming back into the room. "Alright, who the fuck-?" 

"Language, Geoff. You're mother would not be happy," Geoff's dad said, entering the room. 

Gavin and I looked at each other. 

"Sorry, but one of these idiots did this," Geoff said, pointing to his face. 

His father looked at it and laughed. "Oh shit, so was that what you kids were doing last night?" he asked, looking at me and Gavin. "Good job, that's hilarious, wow, keep up the good work." 

"You're not any help, Dad," Geoff said. 

"Well, it's funny, lighten up kid," he said, "It'll come off. I'm going to go now, you boys have a nice day." 

"You two are fucking dumbasses," Geoff said to me and Gavin, but that was all he did to us. After that, he just went to the bathroom to wash the sharpie off. 

Half an hour later, Geoff's face was mostly marker free and we decided to go out to get breakfast. 

"Hey, Micool, who are you talking to?" Gavin asked as we were waiting for our food. 

"No one," He said. 

"That's a lie," Ryan said. "You've been on your phone all morning. Even during our meal, how disrespectful!" 

"Okay, first of all, you're not my mom, Ryan, and secondly, we haven't even gotten our food yet," Michael argued. 

"But you don't deny that you've had you're phone out nonstop?" 

"I haven't!" Michael said just as his phone beeped quietly, signaling he had gotten a text message. 

"That might have been a little more effective if you would've had you phone on vibrate," Gavin said. 

Michael sighed, "I'm just talking to Lindsay, okay, leave me alone." 

"Lindsay?" I said, the conversation suddenly sparking my interest. "So you have her number now?" 

"Yeah," Michael said, smiling and actually blushing a slight bit. "We talked the other day on the bus and she gave me her number." 

"Look at Michael, getting himself a girlfriend!" Ryan cheered. 

Michael blushed even harder. "She's not my girlfriend. We barely know each other." 

"Sure, but you'd love for her to be your girlfriend," Ryan said, and Michael didn't even deny it. 

I pulled out my phone under the table, attempting to be more sly than Michael. 

_Michael's pretty cool, huh?_ I sent to Lindsay. 

A few minutes later she replied: _Shut up, asshole. (He's pretty great)_

I smiled at my success and put my phone away. 

"How much syrup do you think I can drink before I get sick?" Gavin asked, eyeing the container of syrup at our table. 

"Two bottles," Geoff said. 

"Not even that much," Ryan guessed. 

"Don't you dare try it, Gav," I told him. I wasn't going to deal with him being sick again. 

"Party pooper," Gavin said. 

"If you do it, I'm not taking care of you. And neither is my mother," I replied. 

"Oooh, harsh, Ray's laying down the law," Michael said. 

"Fine," Gavin said, looking away from the syrup. 

After breakfast, we decided to part ways and go home. Gavin and I walked back to my house, with our bags in tow. 

"That was top," Gavin said. 

"Yeah, it was fun," I said. And for some unknown reason, I felt the need to go on, "And you're my best friend, you know?" 

Gavin stayed silent. I panicked. I must have sounded like the lamest, loneliest guy ever. How lame was it to say, 'You're my best friend'? Why did I even feel the need to say that? 

"Yeah, uh, yeah," Gavin said. 

For the rest of the walk, Gavin was silent, which was extremely alarming because of how uncharacteristic of him that was. 

When we got back to my house, Gavin made up a half-asses excuse to go to his room and didn't come out for the rest of the day, not even for dinner. 

"What's wrong with Gavin, dear?" My mother asked, clearly worried. 

'I was a clingy asshole and he probably hates me' was what I wanted to say, but I knew my mother wouldn't like to hear that. "We stayed up pretty late last night, I think he's tired, he's getting caught up on sleep." 

In reality, I didn't know what was bothering him. I thought back and forth on whether or not I creeped him out. It made sense, but at the same time it didn't. Maybe my friends before would have acted like that, but Gavin was better than that. Maybe he was just tired. 

Most of my day was entirely to empty and quiet. I missed Gavin, and it was worse because he was so close, but still unreachable. I was lost and sad. 

I went to my room at 7, and spent the following few hours staring at my wall, feeling sorry for myself. Right before I fell asleep, I decided I was going to talk to Gavin the next day, apologize for saying weird things, and then we could move on. Hopefully. 

 

 

"Gavin, hey, look, I'm sorry about yesterday, I was weird, and I don't know why I said that, it was stupid," I said the next morning. As soon as I woke up, I went straight to Gavin's door and knocked. He opened it in his too big pajama pants and shirt, with his hair sticking up in every direction. 

His eyes were darker than normal, closed off, and it hurt to see. My apology only seemed to make it worse. 

"Gavin? I'm sorry? What should I do to make it up to you?" I asked, actually worried that I had ruined the best friendship I had ever had. 

He just shook his head. "No, don't. Just. I'm going to go out for the day. Excuse me." 

Gavin brushed past me and went into the bathroom, and closed the door tightly behind. I stood, lost and more pissed than I was before. 

What the fuck was wrong with him? What the fuck was wrong with me for being so desperate to be around Gavin again? What the fuck? 

True to his word, an hour later, Gavin walked straight out the door, without another word to me. 

I sat on the couch, clueless on what I should do. I noticed my phone sitting on the table, and sent a text to the first person who came to mind. 

_Hey, Michael, do you wanna hang out, or something today?_

I had just gotten his number last night, and while he was the last person I should have gone to for help, he was the only one who came to my head. 

_Sure._

I jumped off my couch and walked out the door, just like Gavin had a short bit ago. 

 

 

"Not that I don't want to be here, but why?" Michael said as we walked around our neighborhood. 

I sat down on a bench and Michael followed. "I don't even know. Gavin is being weird as fuck." 

"As opposed to regularly?" Michael asked. 

"No, I'm not sure what his problem is. I thought I said something stupid to him yesterday, but when I apologized, he didn't even care. So if it wasn't that, I don't know what I did to him. He didn't talk to me yesterday, he just hid in his room all day, and then today, after I tried apologizing, he ran out of the house as fast as possible. I have no fucking idea what's wrong with him," I sighed, resting my head in my hands. 

"That is weird, for Gavin. Aren't you guys usually super close?" Michael asked. 

"Yeah," I said quietly. 

"Weird." 

"And then here I am, I'm a fucking mess because I can't even go a day without talking to him, I'm going through a Gavin shortage or something. He's so dumb, and funny, and interesting, and gross, and just fucking amazing, I don't know what's going on," I said, extremely frustrated. 

Michael patted me on the back. 

"It's hard for me to tell what's going on, but you guys are like, friend soul mates or some shit. Anyone can see that, you guys just click. I think it'll fix itself, eventually. Maybe if you just let him do whatever he has to do, he'll go back to normal," Michael suggested. 

I sat up straight again. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Although, just between us, don't fucking tell anyone, I miss him so badly. Already. I miss the annoying little prick." 

Michael nodded, "I know." 

We didn't talk about Gavin for the rest of the day. We went to the mall, and walked around like the teenage bums we were. We talked some about Lindsay, who Michael was actually going on a date with next weekend. We had a great time, as friends, which I felt like I could confidently say. 

Michael had changed in my view so much within the last month. He was one hundred percent cooler than I thought he was. I was glad I got to be friends with him, instead of enemies, because this way was so much cooler than the other way. 

That night, I got home after hours of hanging out with Michael, and Gavin was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching TV. As soon as he saw me, though, he bolted. 

And while I had decided to let him do what he needed to in hopes of him getting over whatever was wrong with him now, it still hurt a lot to see him run away, specifically to avoid me. It hurt a lot more than I should have let it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My router got broken by a storm we had last week and the new one just got here yesterday, so for a week all I had was my phone, which I couldn't post anything with, so that's why this took so long. Sorry! But on the bright side, here it is! And I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far. I hope you enjoy it, and don't worry, I'm going to have the next chapter up as soon as possible to make up for the last couple weeks.


	14. Chapter 14

Gavin barely talked to me for the next week. And when he did say something, it was cold and distant. But then, at school, with anyone but me, he would be as energetic and happy as he always was before. After one particularly hard day, I came home and shut myself in my room and cried. Over fucking Gavin. Crying itself always made me feel like shit, but this time reason for my tears was dumber than anything else, but I couldn't seem to make them stop. 

Michael and Lindsay were my saviors during the week. I don't know if Michael said something to Lindsay about my struggles with Gavin, or she could see them for herself, but she did her best hangout with me whenever she could and make me feel better. Michael talked to me during lunch, and distracted me from Gavin, who was right next to me, but at the same time miles and miles away. 

Gavin did homework during study hall, for the first time ever. He was so dedicated to ignoring me that he would actually do school work to prevent himself from talking to me.  
Even though I had came so far since the first months of my high school experience, at times I felt like I hadn't gotten any better at all. 

On the night that I cried, I knew I needed to change something. I couldn't depend my entire happiness on someone else. I had to make my own path to being happy. While I would have loved to get things back to normal with Gavin, I had to learn to be okay on my own. Someday Gavin would leave for good, he'd go back to his own country, and there was a good chance I'd never see him again. When that happened, I couldn't just throw my entire life and happiness away. 

After that, I tried my best to enjoy the times when I was with my friends, and not just mope about what I had loss. Doing that, I became less sad, but I still kept hope. 

The next Saturday night, I was stuck at my house for the first time in a week. Every other day I had just gone with either Michael or Lindsay and done something, anything to get out of the house and get my mind off Gavin. Tonight was the night of Lindsay and Michael's first date, though, so I was left alone. Well, not technically alone, because Lindsay had forced me to come over to her house and help her pick out something to wear. 

"You do realize I'm male and have relatively no sense of style, don't you?" I asked as I sat on her bed, staring at the ceiling. 

"Yes, but you aren't blind, you can tell me what looks nice," Lindsay said, walking out of her closet in yet another outfit. "How about this one?" 

"I think my grandmother has a shirt that looks like that," I said, truthfully. 

"Harsh, but thanks." 

"Do you also realize that this is Michael and he's going to be head over heels for you no matter what you wear?" I asked. 

"Stop whining." 

I sighed and continued my duty as a stylist. 

Three outfits later, she found the perfect one, and was ready to go. 

"Thank god. Well, I'm going to go home, have fun on your date and don't do the dirty or anything," I said. 

"Shut up, Ray," She commanded. I motioned zipping up my mouth and throwing away the key. "That's more like it. Now, can you do a favor for me? Will you please talk to Gavin? I'm not asking you to kiss his ass or anything, just figure out what's going on between you two. I think you both need this." 

I looked down at my shoes, not wanting to have to talk to Gavin. I was still letting him do what he needed to get over whatever the hell happened. I was prepared to wait as long as I needed to. 

"Please, Ray," she begged. 

"Alright, I'll try. I'm not sure how well it will go, but I'll try." 

"Thank you." 

"Now, go on, have fun on your date," I said as I walked out her front door. 

I waited, alone, at my house for a few hours. My mom was with some of her friends, shopping, and I wasn’t even sure if Gavin as going to come home at a reasonable time. 

To my surprise, Gavin walked in the door at 5 o'clock exactly, far sooner than I expected. 

Before he could run off to his room, I said, "Gavin, please, will you just talk to me? I'm your friend, you can tell me whatever is bothering you. I just want this awkwardness to be over." 

Gavin ran a hand through his hair and sighed before walking over to me and putting his hands on my shoulders and crouching slightly, "How do you not see it, Ray? I don't want to be your friend." 

My stomach fell into my feet and I felt a crack opening somewhere inside me. Gavin couldn't stand me after all, I was just an annoying little leech to him. I almost felt like crying, again, but I knew I couldn't let this hurt me this badly. I needed to be stronger. But as I was facing the loss of the first real friend I had gained in so long, I didn't know if I had enough strength to accept that. 

I was about to say something, what exactly I don't know, but he stopped me. He still hadn't moved, he was right in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. 

"I don't want to be your friend," he repeated as he leaned forward and did the unthinkable. He kissed me. 

The kiss was short and sweet, and as he pulled away his eyes glistened a bit, "See? I don't want to be your friend, and it got to the point where I couldn't hold anything back any more. I'm sorry for doing this to you, Ray. Feel free to punch me or something, just, do it later okay?" 

With that, Gavin ran off, into his room. 

I sat on the couch, confused, but also more enlightened about the situation than I had been in awhile. For a second, I thought I should go get Gavin, but then I realized I had no idea what to say. I had no idea what to do with this information. 

I decided I needed someone's help, and I needed it quickly, because I couldn't leave Gavin wondering for too long. I couldn't get Michael or Lindsay, they were busy. Maybe, I could ask Jack. He was calm, levelheaded, and probably would judge me too badly. 

_Hey, Jack, can we meet up somewhere? I need some help._

He replied within a minute. 

_Yeah, totally, tell me your address and I'll be over in ten minutes._

I sent him my address along with : _Thank you so much._

Ten minutes later, a silver SUV pulled in front of my house, and I quickly went outside to get in it. 

"Hey," I said as I got in his car. 

"Hey," he replied. "Where do you want to go?" 

"I don't care, wherever we can sit and have a semi private talk." 

He nodded, "Got it." 

We found ourselves in a little ice cream shop that had picnic tables in the back. I bought a milkshake and Jack got an ice cream cone. As we sat down at the table, Jack stared at me, just waiting for me to get started. 

"I'm very lost. I have a... weird relationship with someone. There's some tension in it. Like. Romantic tension. And I didn't realize it before today, but now it's evident," I started. I thought of all the time I spent with Gavin, out trips to the grocery store, playing games together, just talking for hours, our study halls together, lunch, the bus rides, the times where I had the strongest urge to poke him in the side, the many, many events that I thought were normal, but looking back seemed more like flirting, from both of our ends. "I don't think they can handle just being friends anymore, it'd be too difficult. I don't think I could either. But I've never considered dating them, it's so weird, yet the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe that's what I secretly wanted. I just don't know what to do, but I need to figure it out soon." 

Jack nodded. "So basically, you and this person are either going to date or hate each other? And just being friends isn't an option anymore?" 

"Yeah," I said, examining the table in front of me, "I don't want to start dating them and then realize I don't have the same feelings. I can't break his heart." 

I startled myself by saying the last part, but I said it so quietly that I didn't think Jack could hear me. 

"But you do like them? And you think there's a possibility you could work out as a couple?" Jack asked. 

I thought about Gavin. He made me laugh, he was never boring, he captivated me. I though about his smile, and his eyes, and how they lit up my day. I also thought about how adorable he was the other day at the grocery store, and how good he looked with his hair sticking up in every direction. "Yeah, I do like them. A lot." 

"Then why not give it a try. Let them know that you're not sure if it'll work out, but give it your best shot. Does that sound doable?" 

I was still beyond nervous about everything, but his words made sense. I did like Gavin, we had been dancing around each other for a couple months, and I needed to at least give it a chance, even if the thought of dating a boy and the consequences of that scared me. "Yeah, it does. Thanks, Jack." 

"No problem, Ray," Jack said as we stood up and threw away our trash. 

We left then, and when we reached my house, Jack said, "Just so you know, now that I think about it that way, you and Gavin would be a great couple." 

My heart got caught in my throat. "You knew I was talking about Gavin?" 

"Yeah, it was kind of obvious when you were talking about him and you're relationship at all. I never knew either of you swung that way, so that kind of confused me at first, but then I realized that when you talked about the person you had the same look as you do whenever he's around," Jack said. 

"And you’re not weirded out by it?" I asked 

"No, why should I be?" Jack asked. 

I smiled, "Thanks, Jack. I'll see you in school on Monday." 

"No problem. I hope things work out well between you two," he said. 

"Yeah, me too." 

I waved to Jack as he pulled away, then opened my front door. My mom still wasn't home, which was probably for the best. Gavin wasn't in the kitchen or the living room, which meant he was probably still in his room. I debated whether or not to go talk to him now or to wait until he came down. 

I decided to go up to his room, because if I didn't I would just procrastinate for as long as possible, which wouldn't be fair to Gavin. 

I knocked on his door, but he didn't open it, or say anything. 

"Gavin?" I tried. No answer. 

It was an invasion of privacy, but I opened Gavin's door. Only after I opened it, I considered the fact that he could have been jacking off. I have no idea what I would've done in that situation, it was too weird to even think of that, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. Luckily for me, Gavin was curled up on his bed, asleep. 

I didn't mean to be creepy, but he was adorable, just sleeping. I bent down beside his bed. 

"Hey, hey, Vav, wake up," I said nudging his shoulder. 

He slowly woke up and opened his eyes. 

"Oh, bollocks," Gavin said, jumping back into the wall beside his bed. 

"Um, about earlier," I started. 

Gavin covered his face with his arm. "I'm sorry I'm a freak." 

I stared at him. His hair was messed up from sleep, and he was wearing his usual loose sleeping clothes. "You're not a freak, Gav," I said. 

He pushed his face into his pillow. "Don't pity me, just tell me the truth." 

It made me so sad to see him like this, and even worse because I was the source of his pain. I wanted to make a joke, to lighten up the mood, but I didn't want to ruin everything. 

"Gavin, Gavin, look at me," I said, lightly tugging on his shoulder. He turned around and faced me, and I could see the fear of rejection, or humiliation, or something in his eyes. 

"I didn't have a whole lot of time to think through this, I was completely oblivious to the situation before a few hours ago, I do know for certain that I don't want to lose you. I can't handle that, in the few months I've known you, I don't know, you just fit into my life so well, I feel like you belong with me, in some form. Maybe just thinking that much means I'm into you, I don't know. I've never, uh, been into guys, I never considered it, I just, um, assumed I was straight, I never challenged that idea. But when you kissed me, I started to challenge the idea. And I thought about us and I think we flirted, like, a lot, but, on my part at least, it was subconsciously. And I was thinking about what we could do, we're not going to be friends with benefits, none of that shit, nope, I've seen the movie, I know that just ends in heart break. But I don't want to be friends either. We have enough friends, right? We're not quite like friends, we're kind of moving past that point. So I was left with the option of dating you and I truthfully don't know if I can handle it, but then, fuck, I'd do it for you, I want to," I babbled. 

Gavin sat up, his blanket falling down and pooling around his legs. "Did you waste all that breathe trying to tell me you want to try dating me?" 

I pushed my glasses up and rubbed my neck. "I mean... yeah..." 

Gavin smiled, "So, can I kiss you now?" 

"Of course not, didn't you know, I've made a promise not to do anything physical before marriage? God, Gav, you should know this," I said. 

"You're full of shit," Gavin said, and then gestured for me to sit beside him on his bed. 

"Well, we are what we eat and such," I replied. 

"Oh my god, you're disgusting for even saying that, why would you even say that? Why do I still want to kiss you?" Gavin laughed. 

"That's what I'm wondering," I said, feeling a lot more comfortable with our playful banter than the serious stuff. It was natural, just letting things happen how the do. 

"I really am going to kiss you now, though, even if you are a nasty bugger," Gavin said. 

"Fine, do it." 

"Just tell me if I ever freak you out, seriously, ever, even months from now," He said, his face completely serious. 

I nodded, and Gavin smiled, "Wonderful." 

He scooted forward, his legs still wrapped in his blankets, and got as close to me as he could before he leaned in and pushed his lips to mine. Unlike our first kiss, this time Gavin reflected his true in the kiss. It was eager and excited, just like him, it was full of energy. We pulled apart quickly, so the kiss didn't get too heated, but it was still way more than either of us had been used to. I smiled at him, and he smiled back, and grabbed my hand. We turned to sit side by side on the wall his bed was against and we intertwined our hands between us. 

"How many people have you dated?" I asked Gavin. He was definitely more experienced than me, but considering I had no experience whatsoever, that wasn't very hard to beat. 

"Three or so? None of them were serious, they were flakey little baby relationships. None of them lasted for more than a couple months. You?" He returned. 

I laughed at the question, "It's nice of you to ask, but you have got to be able to tell I've never dated anyone." 

"Really? I didn't know that. Not even in middle school or anything?" 

"If kissing a girl in a game of spin the bottle back in seventh grade counts, than yeah, sure," I said. "But really, even that was awful, she had braces and I still have nightmares about it today. Were you exes girls or did you always go for guys?" 

"Man, this is a weird conversation to have. But yeah, they were girls. Possibly why they didn't pan out. Boys always peaked in interest in me, but I always tried my best to ignore it. Until, recently," Gavin said, blushing and resting his head on my shoulder, which cause butterflies to flutter in my stomach like the nerd I was. 

"Are we going to tell anyone?" he asked. 

"I mean... I'm okay with it if you are. Maybe it'd be best not to shout it out, I don't want to deal with homophobes or bullies, but our friends will probably be okay with it. Maybe my mom, she'd probably handle it well. I hope so, at least," I said. 

"Yeah, I'm fine with doing that," Gavin agreed. 

"Maybe we can just wait a week or so, to find the perfect time," I said. 

"Or so you can get up the nerve?" Gavin asked. 

"Yeah, that too," I agreed sheepishly. "Look, already used all my courage today to come up and talk to you." 

"You think you used a lot of courage today? What? I kissed you! Out of nowhere! I had been mulling over how to tell you for a week!" Gain exclaimed. 

I pulled out of his so I could poke him in the side, "Yeah that whole ignoring me for a week and making me feel like shit thing, please don't do that again." 

"Sorry, I was going through a weird time, I knew how I felt about you but I didn't know what I should do, if I should just ignore it, or to tell you, and I was afraid you'd hate me, and in my mind the best thing for me to do was to distance myself from you," Gavin said. 

"It's okay, I understand. But for real, you do it again and I'm shipping myself back to Puerto Rico," I threatened. 

"You can't even speak Spanish," Gavin laughed. 

"Yes, but it's in my blood. I will unlock the power." 

"You've been there once when you were a child," Gavin continued to argue. 

"You know what, why don't you just not do that again, and I won't have to worry about any of that." 

"Okay," Gavin said. He nudged my leg with his foot, "What are we going to do now? I'm bored." 

"I'm glad you find me so entertaining," I said with mock hurt. 

"Well, step your game up and maybe I would," Gavin challenged. 

A loud knock came from downstairs before I could respond. 

"Hey look at that, maybe it'll be someone who's actually entertaining," Gavin joked before running downstairs. 

"You better run, asshole," I said, going after him. I walked, though, since I wasn't actually going to exert myself that much. 

Gavin answered the door. It was Geoff. 

"Hey, buddy, how are you doing?" Geoff asked in the nicest voice I had ever heard come out of him. It was laced with actual concern. Fuck, that was serious. "You sounded pretty rough earlier." 

Geoff looked concerned and sympathetic and I was completely lost. There were times where I truly didn't think Geoff owned a heart. I thought he lost it in the wash or some shit because he was hardcore. But then I remembered the night where he entertained Gavin for awhile, and how Gavin must have gone to Geoff every day this week. Geoff was a good guy, and he had a soft spot for Gavin, the ridiculous asshole, out of all people. 

"Yeah, um, about that," Gavin said glancing back at me. "Well..." 

Geoff turned and saw me for the first time. He looked back to Gavin, and I could tell he was trying to read the situation. He looked back and forth a few times before saying, "Should I stay or leave?" 

"You can stay," Gavin said, gesturing for him to come inside. 

"Should he stay or leave?" Geoff said, pointing to me. 

"I mean, this is my house, so I don't really think you can make me leave," I said, kind of offended from Geoff's words. He really did make me doubt if he thought of me as a friend or hated me. But he had been hanging out with Gavin for the whole week, and e only saw the negative side effects I had on Gavin. I wondered how much he knew. 

"Um, well, um, Ray's my boyfriend now," Gavin blurted out hurriedly. 

I stared at Gavin, surprised. Apparently, we were going to start telling people now. 

He saw my shocked face and said, "I'm sorry, but Geoff already knew enough." 

I shook my head, "No, it's fine, that was just, uh, quick. Does that make you more or less inclined to kill me?" I asked Geoff. 

He shrugged, "I mean, if it makes Gavin stop moaning like a baby all the time, I guess it's good. Just don't make me regret telling him to go after you." 

I nodded. 

A few silent, awkward moments passed before Gavin suggested, "We should watch TV!" 

Since it was Saturday night, there wasn't anything good on, so we ended up watching How It's Made. 

"Wow, yogurt, candles, and neon signs, we hit the jackpot, lads!" Gavin exclaimed with sadly not enough sarcasm. He was really into it, unlike Geoff and I. 

I watched it, though, and as it went on I became more and more interested. During commercial breaks, Geoff would occasionally ask us questions. 

"So are you guys going to tell people, or are you going to keep it a secret?" Geoff asked. 

"We were planning on telling you guys, Ray's mum, only the important people. It won't be a secret but we're not going to go yelling it out in the hallways," Gavin explained. 

He nodded and looked back toward the screen. 

Later her said, "Would you guys be offended by dick sucking jokes? Because we make a lot of them." 

"I make a good deal of those jokes, and they're just jokes, so, no?" I said, although the thought of dick sucking applied to me and Gavin made me blush quite a bit. I pushed that thought away. 

Gavin laughed, "We didn't change or anything, we're still us, just a bit more gay, both in sexuality and happiness." 

"That might've been the strangest thing I've ever heard you say," Geoff said. 

"If that's true, you obviously haven't spent enough time with him, because it gets so much worse. He once asked me what I would do if my sock started talking to me," I replied. 

"I actually think he asked me that once, too. What goes on in your head, Gavin?" 

He shrugged, "I think it's pretty normal, maybe you guys are just strange." 

Geoff and I looked at each other and saw our similar faces of disbelief. 

"Sure, whatever you say, Vav," I said. 

"Now be quiet, we're getting to the good part!" Gavin shushed us. 

He was extremely interested by the making of neon signs, and didn't look away once during the entire process of making the lights. I, on the other hand, wasn't quite as mesmerized, and spent much of the time watching Gavin instead. He was sat on the couch, with me, but on the other end of it. I could see the profile of his face really well. Usually, Gavin's nose was hilarious, because it was just so big, but now it looked nice. It was a part of Gavin. His hair was still messy, but not in the styled way he usually had it. For some reason, I loved when his hair was genuinely messy. It added another level of attractiveness on his part. I almost laughed at myself as I was staring him down, thinking how nice his lips looked. Gavin Free's stupid fucking face had butterflies flying in my stomach. 

Once another commercial came, I leaned toward Gavin slightly. "I don't think I've ever seen you so focused on something. It was cute." 

"You're cute," Gavin said, turning to me. "Oh, wait, no, that was a bad comeback. It's true but a very lousy comeback. I think I need to stop using the 'you're whatever' comebacks." 

"Yeah, maybe that's a good idea," I replied, "But I am cute?" 

"Yes, dork," Gavin laughed. 

I smiled and slid over so I was sitting right next to him. Gavin put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me so I was leaning against him. 

Geoff chuckled, "You guys are like fucking puppies or some shit. I'm going to leave, though, I've got things to do. See you Monday." 

I was about to question the "things to do" but I decided it would be best if I didn't know. 

We said our goodbyes, and as the show started up again as soon as Geoff closed the door behind himself. 

We watched three straight episodes of How It's Made, and Gavin was equally interested in all of them. I sat, leaning on him, through the entire time, completely comfortable. 

My mom came home at nine, when our third episode was just ending. I sat up immediately, and Gavin put his arm back by his side. He looked a little sad at my moving away, and I felt bad. 

I had always been close to my mother, and I knew that the news of our relationship would shock her, to the extreme, but she would be more than likely to accept it. I wanted to start things off as well as I could. 

"Hi, boys, how has your day been?" My mom asked as she took her shoes off at the door. 

"Good," I said, looking at Gavin. 

"That's nice," She said as she walked into the kitchen. I got up and followed her. Gavin looked up at me. 

"I'll be back, soon," I said. He nodded. 

My mom was getting a glass of water. I sat down at the table. 

"Mom, I have something to tell you," I started. 

She sat down next to me and said, "Yes, honey?" 

I took a deep breath. "This is going to be surprising, but Gavin and I dating," I spat out. It was weird to say. Six hours ago this wasn't true. 

She blinked, taking in the information. 

"I'm sorry to spring this on you, I just didn't want to wait or hide it from you. I want it to be good from the start," I added. 

"So this is a recent thing?" She asked. 

"Very recent. Like, today recent." 

"Are you joking with me?" She asked. My heart dropped. I didn't imagine she wouldn't accept it. She was always the most loving and supporting mother. When I had no friends, she fucking signed us up for a foreign exchange student. 

"No," I said, and I could very clearly hear the hurt in my voice, and apparently so could she. 

"Oh, no, honey, I'm sorry, I was just checking. I just, I never knew you liked boys, how could I have not known? I'm just so surprised. I support you, though, don't worry, sweetheart. I love you no matter what." 

"So you're okay with it?" I asked. 

"Of course. Do you have anything else to tell me, honey? Have I not been spending enough time with you, what have I missed, I feel like I'm behind." 

"No, Mom, you're fine. I didn't know myself until today. I don't know if I'm gay, or bisexual, I don't know, and right now, I don't really care. I just know I like Gavin," I explained. After today my sexuality was a confusing blur that I didn't really feel like examining yet. 

"Okay. I'm fine with it, honey, I respect your choices. And Gavin is such a nice boy, I'm glad it's him," she said. 

"Thanks, Mom," I got up and hugged her. "I'm sorry." 

"Don't you dare apologize for who you love, embrace it," She said, hugging me back, tightly. "Be yourself and be happy." 

I nodded and she released me. "I love you, Ray." 

"I love you, too, Mom," 

"Go back in with Gavin, now, I'm going to go up to bed." 

I went back out into the living room and sat down right beside Gavin. I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped one of my arms around his stomach and held onto his shirt loosely with my other hand. He put his arm around my shoulders. 

"That was rough," I said into his shirt. "I told her about us." 

"Was she not okay with it?" Gavin asked, rubbing my shoulder softly. 

"No. She was surprised and worried she didn't really know me anymore, but she said it was okay. I think she'll be fine with it soon, it'll just take some adjusting on her part. She did say she was glad it was you because she likes you." 

"Everyone likes me," Gavin boasted. 

"Oh, sure, sure." 

"You're not one to argue that people don't like me, you're the king of liking me." 

"Whatever floats your boat," I replied, leaning back from Gavin. 

He darted forward to kiss my cheek. 

I smiled, "Okay, maybe I do like you, just a little bit." 

"That’s good enough for me," he said, kissing my forehead. "With my outstanding wit and charm, you'll be completely won over in no time." 

The sad thing was that even though he was joking, what he was saying was true. He would completely win me over, and it probably wouldn't take long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a nice 4th of July present for anyone who's interested! And if you're not American or you don't care, well, there's still another, fairly long chapter up, so yay! This chapter was rough, I had to revise the shit out of it, and it bothered me constantly. So yeah, there were many, many hours spent working on this, I hope you enjoy it, and thank you so much to everyone who reads it.


	15. Chapter 15

"Ray, fucking Ray, you are the best, I owe you so much, fuck," Michael said over the phone Sunday morning. 

"I'm guessing you won the lottery with that five bucks I lent you last week?" I guessed. 

"No, jackass, for fucking helping me with Lindsay. The date was amazing," I could practically hear his smile of the phone. He was ecstatic. 

"You didn't do the no no, did you? I told Lindsay not to, but you never know with her," I asked. 

"No, dumbass, and if we ever did I sure as hell wouldn't tell you." 

"Oh, you know you would. I probably wouldn't want to know, but you would be boasting about it like crazy," I said. 

"I would not, that would be so disrespectful to Lindsay," he argued. 

I laughed a little, "Sure, but even if you didn't shout it out for anyone to hear, we'd still be able to tell. You'd actually be happy for once." 

"I'm happy all the time! I'm happy right now, asshole!" He exclaimed. 

"It's very violent anger, though," I continued, dragging on the conversation solely for my own entertainment. 

"Shut up fuckface. Do you wanna go to GameStop with me today? My mom gave me some money that I plan on blowing right away," he said. 

"Shouldn't you be saving that money for your next date? Assuming you had the balls to ask her out again." 

"I actually did, we're going out again in two weeks, but no, I have my own money saved up for that kind of shit. The money my mom gave me is purely to blow on useless shit," Michael explained. 

"Well now you're speaking my language. I'll be at your house in ten minutes or so," I said and Michael agreed before we both hung up. 

It was 11, so it was early enough that I hadn't left my room yet, so I hadn't seen anyone. My mom was in the living room, watching one of her television shows that bored me to tears. 

"I'm going to GameStop with Michael, is that okay?" I asked, sitting down in a chair across from my mom. 

"That's fine. Are you going to take Gavin?" She asked, hinting at something else. 

"I wasn't really planning on it. Has he even been out of his room today?" 

"Not that I know of. I'll go check on him," I said. 

Just as I was about to leave the living room, my mom said, "Wait, Ray." 

"Yeah?" I turned around to face her. She looked a little worried. 

"Am I going to have to set rules about you two going into each others rooms, alone?" 

I started choking on air, "Mom, no, god, no!" 

"Well, if you guys are dating, I just..." She trailed off. 

"I promise, holy crap, I promise we won't do anything inappropriate, okay?" I said, wanting to stop this conversation. 

She sighed, "Alright, but just remember, if you ever do, because I know what being a teenager is like, be safe. I mean, neither of you can get pregnant, thank the lord, but you STDs are always a big problem and I know you trust Gavin but-" 

"MOM!" I said, cutting her off to end my pain, "I promise we won't do anything and if we do we will be safe, I've taking Health now, I know about this stuff, just please let it go." 

My mom laughed, "Alright, honey. Go on, now." 

I ran up stairs to avoid her from getting in any other words. 

I knocked on Gavin's door and received no answer, like I had the day before. I pushed the door open again, and found Gavin still asleep. 

"Lazy bum," I whispered affectionately. I didn't have the heart to wake him up, so I stole a post it note from his desk and wrote, I'm going to GameStop with Michael, didn't want to wake you up. I then stuck the bright green note to his forehead and laughed at how ridiculous he looked, deep in sleep, blankets thrown everywhere, his hair sticking up in every direction, and a post it note sitting right on the middle of his forehead. 

I got out of the house quickly, to avoid any more sex talk from my mom, and walked to Michael's house. 

His mom answered the door when I knocked. 

"Hi, Mrs. Jones," I said. I had known his mom since we were in grade school, from different school events, but it was never from being Michael's friend, like I was now. 

"Are you Michael's new friend? I know I've seen you around, but I cannot remember your name, I'm sorry," she said. 

"I'm Ray," I introduced myself. 

"Come on in, Ray, would you like a snack?" She asked. Her enthusiasm for meeting her son's friends reminded me of Geoff's mom. 

"No thank you. Michael and I were just going to go hang out at the mall today," I said. 

"Oh yes, he told me that, he's just getting ready right now, the boy always does that as late as possible. Now, he told me you helped him get that date of his last night! I haven't met the girl, but I'm sure she's lovely, thank you so much for helping my Michael. He had a lot of trouble with friends as a kid, I just didn't know what to do, but now things certainly seem to be turning around for him." She said, extremely happy from her sons new found social life. 

Weirdly enough, I could see my mom having a very similar conversation with Gavin. That would be extremely embarrassing, and I prayed that it wouldn't happen. Though there were times, like now, for instance, when Gavin was home with my mom, and I could only imagine what she says to him. Hopefully, she never feels the need to bring out the baby pictures. 

"Yeah, it's going really great," I said in reply, not really sure how to properly reply to that. 

I was saved from having to say anything else by Michael entering the room. "Hey, Ray. I'm ready to go as soon as you are." 

"I'm ready now," I said, hoping not to sound to eager. 

"Alright, see you later, Mom," Michael said as we left. 

After we were outside Michael asked, "Was she being weird?" 

"She was being a mom," I replied. 

Michael nodded, understanding exactly what I meant. 

"So what'd you guys do last night?" I asked. 

"We went to dinner, because I thought that was like, a good, typical first date activity, right? And I was so awkward at first, I was fucking nervous, but Lindsay, damn, she's amazing. And the food fucking sucked, we went to that new Mexican restaurant, you know, and it was awful, but she just laughed about it. After that, I had no idea what to do, so Lindsay suggested we go to Walmart, so literally, we spent half our dating messing around in Walmart and it was the best time ever," he said, finally stopping to catch his breath. 

I laughed, "I take you like her a little?" 

"She fucking amazing," he replied. 

We got to the public bus stop, different from our school one, and got on the bus that arrived shortly after we did. Half an hour later, we exited GameStop with Michael's new purchase in hand. 

In the past week or so when we spent a lot of time together, we had learned about our mutual passion for games. One night he had even come over to my house to play, and I found out he was much more serious about his gaming than Gavin. Gavin was awesome to play with, he was entertaining as shit, but he wasn't too serious about anything. He had a way of getting blown up a lot and doing about the stupidest thing he could in any give situation. Michael was actually involved and challenging to play against and helpful to have on a team. He was a nice change from Gavin, sometimes. 

"Do you want to come try this out at my house? My parents are going to some stupid party at their friends or something, so we can play in the living room and pig out on stuff." Michael suggested. 

"Yeah, totally," I agreed. 

Two hours later, we were doing just that. 

"You're kicking ass on this, man," Michael said as we took a break. "And you've never played?" 

"Nah, but it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it," I said. 

"I think you just spend too much time playing," Michael replied. 

"To become the master, you must first become the recluse." 

Michael laughed, and got up to go find some food in his kitchen. I went to the bathroom while he was doing that. 

When I got back, Michael had a bag of chips and some cans of soda. 

He also looked a bit suspicious. 

"Why do you look like you stole a cookie from the cookie jar?" I asked. 

"You're phone was going off like crazy, and I shouldn't have looked, but I'm a dick and I'm nosy and well. You made up with Gavin?" He asked at the end, still looking guilty but also a bit relieved. 

"Oh shit, I forgot I put my phone there, I haven't looked at it in hours," I said. "And yeah, last night." 

I didn't go into any details as I picked up my phone. I had no idea what he would've seen. 

Gavin had sent me 8 messages. 

_Ray, I'm bored. Are you coming home soon?_

_X-Ray... Come on. I went a week without talking to you, I miss you, I need to make up for that._

_You suck_

_I'm going to leave you for some hot girl, then you'll be sad._

_Don't be sad, though, really, just answer me._

_R_

_A_

_Y_

The first message was sent two hours ago, and the rest evenly spread out until the last three, which were just sent. I knew how pitiful and whiny Gavin could be when he was bored. 

"Shit, can Gavin come over? He's bored and going to throw a fit if he's left alone any longer. I promise he'll behave. As much as he can at least." 

"Yeah, no problem," he said. 

I sent a text back to Gavin. 

_Sorry, Vav, I wasn't paying attention to my phone. Do you want to come over to Michael's and hang out? he's got food <3_

I took a second to decide whether or not to send the heart, but I decided for it to make up for taking so long. It didn't mean I was in love with him or anything, it was just a little sign that I cared. 

He texted back almost immediately. 

_On my way_

Shortly after I got 

_Wait, where's Michael's house?_

I smiled at my phone and typed in his address with some directions so he didn't get lost, which he was prone to do. 

Michael and I sat in silence. It struck me that maybe he suspected something going on between me and Gavin, especially after seeing his messages. I got more and more nervous as time passed and the silence grew stronger and stronger. 

I decided I might as well throw all my nerves out the window and fess up. 

"Gavin and I, uh, made up last night. But uh, it wasn't quite what I thought it was. Uh. Now, uh, well, okay, fuck it, I'm dating Gavin. Alright, I said it, I hope you're not homophobic, and if you are, I guess I can leave," I blurted out. I needed to work on my whole coming out speech. 

Michael just stared at me. "Holy fuck, wait, no fucking way, you're dating Gavin?" 

I nodded. 

He cracked up laughing. "Holy shit, if I were to go for a dude, Gavin would be the last person I went for, holy shit, I can't even imagine what he'd be like to date, are you going to want to kill him?" 

"Gavin's awesome," I said, "I'm fine with him." 

"Wow, okay, great for you then, I'll be here when you need a sanity break." 

"So you're okay with it?" I asked. 

"Yeah, fine with me, as long as you can handle him. I'm glad you guys are getting along again. So, do you like, find his accent hot? Like, is that a selling point?" 

I thought about it, more relaxed since Michael was so cool with it. "I mean, I never thought about it, but yeah, I guess it is attractive." 

"It'll be good for the bedroom, huh?" Michael wiggled his eyebrows. 

"Holy shit, we've been dating for less than 24 hours, if one more person references us having sex I am going to explode," I said. 

Michael howled with laughter, "Who else said something?" 

"My mom," I admitted, "I decided to tell her last night, get it out of the way, so she didn't find out by walking in on us when we were making out, and then today she started to give me the safe sex talk and I was mortified." 

"That's fucking awesome, wow," Michael replied. 

"Maybe for you, not for me." 

"You guys do have a good set up, though," Michael pointed out. 

"We just started dating, we're not having sex yet!" I repeated for emphasis. 

"I'm just messing with you to make up for earlier when you were bugging me about Lindsay." 

"Asshole. Do you want to play another round?" I asked, pointing to his Xbox. 

"Heck yeah." 

I was in the middle of killing an enemy when Michael's door was thrown open. 

"I'm here, lads!" Gavin called he shut the front door. 

"Hi, Gavin," I replied, still focused on the game. 

"Hey, Gavin," Michael seconded, equally as focused. 

That wasn't apparently good enough for Gavin, because soon I had an extra weight attached to my back, making me drop my controller and get killed as a result. 

I groaned, irritated. Michael just laughed at me, while Gavin said, "Hi, Ray." 

"Hello, Gavin," I said, reaching behind myself to poke him in the stomach. "You messed me up." 

"I don't care," Gavin replied, still clinging around my shoulders. 

"I guess you guys do kind of seem like a couple," Michael said, who was sitting on the floor a few feet beside me. 

Gavin stilled and leaned into my ear, "Does he know or...?" 

"I told him," I assured Gavin. 

"Oh good, that means I can do this," Gavin said and leaned forward to sloppily kiss me on the cheek. 

I laughed, "You're a dork." 

"Whatever you say, video game nerd." 

"Wow, Gav, kill him with the truth. I bet he had no idea he was a video game nerd. Nice," Michael said with full sarcasm. 

"Yeah, I couldn't come up with anything else," Gavin admitted. He relaxed behind me, sitting down and wrapping his legs around my waist and loosely hung his arms around my shoulders. "Can I play?" 

I passed my controller onto Gavin. 

"Wouldn't it be easier if you weren't wrapped around me like a sloth?" I asked. 

"Maybe, but it wouldn't be as nice," he said. 

It was kind of weird, just sitting there, watching Gavin and Michael play, while I could feel Gavin's body heat from behind me. It was weird, but I didn't want to move an inch. 

Michael beat Gavin's ass, as expected. 

"You'll get 'em next time, tiger," I encouraged Gavin. 

"He won't," Michael said. He got up and walked to the kitchen. "Do you guys want to go get some Taco Bell?" 

I stood up immediately, causing Gavin to let go of me and fall onto the ground. "Yes, let's go." 

I leaned down and held my hand out to help Gavin up. He smiled and once he was up he let go of my hand to rearrange his so that we were holding hands. 

I expected to feel uncomfortable, or at least a little nervous be when we went outside, into the open, with Gavin and I still holding hands. I wasn't. 

 

 

That night, I was laying in my bed, attempting to fall asleep, when my door was flung open. 

Gavin stood in my doorway, with a t-shirt with school in England's logo, and boxers. His hair was ruffled up, which showed he had probably tried to go to sleep. I raised my eyebrow questioningly, which I realized he probably couldn't see very well, since it was dark in my room and the only light from the window and the hallway behind him. 

"Yeah, Vav?" I asked. Sitting up in my bed. 

He rubbed the back of his head. "Can I bum around here for a little while? I'm bored and cannot get to sleep. 

I nodded, "Close my door, though, my mom wouldn't be happy to know you were in here." 

Gavin followed my instructions, cutting off one of our few sources of light. He fumbled his way to my bed, tripping over things I was pretty sure weren't even there. He finally made his way to my bed and fell into it, his leg landing across mine and his elbow in his side. 

"That was an adventure," He said, turning so he was on his side, facing me. I followed suit, and we laid their, face to face in the darkness. "Why wouldn't your mum be happy?" 

"This morning she asked me if there needed to be rules about us being in each other's rooms. And then she gave me the safe sex talk," I answered. 

Gavin laughed, "Fascinating. Is she going to talk to me? Should I prepare a speech?" 

"You're probably safe. As long as she doesn’t find out you're in here. I don't think it's even the gay thing that's bothering her now, it's just that she's afraid I'll have sex. I understand, we all knew I was a future 40 year old virgin. Sometimes it's hard for people to accept the change," I rattled on. 

"Don't worry, I won't let you become a 40 year old virgin," Gavin promised, reaching out to rub my arm. 

My heart stopped. Gavin waited for my reply until he realized what had just happened. 

"Are we going to have sex someday?" Gavin asked. 

I stayed silent, letting the wheels in my head turn as fast as they could. 

"I mean. If we stay together. I imagine. Eventually," I stumbled on my words. 

Gavin nodded, and in the dim light I could see his nose bob up and down. I laughed at the image. 

"What?" Gavin asked. 

"Your fucking nose man. We're having a serious conversation and it's poorly lit in here and you nodded, and all I could see was your fucking nose go up and down," I continued to laugh. 

Gavin didn't laugh, though, he just stayed, laying beside me. "Is my nose really that big? Do I look like a freak?" 

I realized Gavin must've been actually insecure about his nose. It was insane to think Gavin was insecure about anything, with how usually whenever you said anything about Gavin and made fun of him, he brushed it off as if it was nothing. Usually it was nothing to him. But his nose must have been a different story. 

I leaned forward and kissed his huge ass fuck nose. "You're nose is enormous and it's absolutely wonderful." I kissed it again, and again, and again, until I felt like my point was accurately made. 

"You like my nose?" Gavin said in a slightly higher and squeakier version than normal. 

"Yes." 

I moved from kissing his nose to his mouth, which was now formed into a smile. The idiot couldn't stop smiling so we could properly make out. 

I moved back and settled with smiling along with Gavin. 

"So we're definitely shagging eventually?" he asked. 

"Holy fuck. Yes, Gavin, okay? Just uh, not yet." 

Gavin gasped, "Of course not! What do you take me for, some sort of horny teenage boy?" 

"Yes, that's exactly what I take you for." 

"Should I move on with the conversation?" Gavin asked. 

"Yeah." 

"Did you know about my art project? I don't think I told you, because I just decided what I was doing this week," Gavin said. 

"You didn't tell me." 

"Oh, well, it's going to be awesome. You know my mate Dan? Well, we used to mess around with cameras, and more importantly slow motion stuff, and it's amazing. Mrs. Smith, the art teacher, is completely awesome, when she's not hounding you to be creative and think outside the box, but anyways, she said I could do a slow motion video for my final project! The big one that we're going to spend months on!" 

"That's awesome, Gav! What are you going to film?" I asked. 

"That’s a wonderful question, Ray, I sure wish I had an answer for you. You'll be the first I tell when I do figure it out," Gavin promised. 

"Is it going to be hard to do it without Dan?" 

"Certainly, but I'm going to be bothering him all the time asking what he thinks." 

"Of course," I said with a laugh. "Are you tired yet?" 

Gavin shook his head, and yet again I saw his fucking nose bobble back and forth. I had to force down the laughter. 

"You know, you were awful lucky I wasn't jacking off when you came in here," I informed him. "It's a nightly ritual, orgasm before snorgasm and such." 

"You're full of shit, Ray," Gavin said with a chuckle. He reached over to me under the blanket and began to tickle my stomach. 

I pushed at him, trying to make him stop, and squirmed around wildly at the same time. 

My only resort was to fight fire with fire, so I reached out and returned the tickling. Gavin was much more sensitive to tickling than I was, so he quickly gave up on his attack. 

"Good lord, you slut, stop, I'm going to fall off the bed," Gavin exclaimed, too loudly since it was the middle of the night. 

I stopped and pulled him a bit closer before putting a finger to my lips, "Shhh." 

"Oh, I'll shush you," Gavin replied, closing the distance between us. It was weird kind of weird to be side by side and kissing, so I followed my instinct and moved on top of Gavin instead, holding my weight upon either side of his shoulders. Gavin smiled against my lips, which I quickly stopped with a small bite on his lower lip, remembering how his smile prevented up from properly making out earlier. Gavin returned my bit with one of his own, and I settled for moving down to his jaw, placing a few kisses along the length of it, and then to his neck. 

I learned very quickly that Gavin fucking loved having his neck kissed. As soon as my lips first made contact, I felt him relax under me as he squeaked slightly. I laughed shortly and returned to his neck, trading kisses for lightly sucking on it. Gavin moved his hands up into my hair, encouraging me to continue. I moved on to a few different spots, not wanting to give Gavin a full blown hickey, and eventually he lightly tugged on my hair, pulling my mouth back up to meet his. He wasted no time in licking the length of my bottom lip, and I took the cue to open my mouth and let his tongue in. 

Having another person's tongue in your mouth was strange. I had only experience it once before, in seventh grade during a game of spin the bottle, which also happened to be my first kiss. She had shoved her tongue in my mouth, slippery and forceful, like some sort of assertive eel. The thought of that kiss still haunted me. Gavin's tongue, which was lighter and easier, was starting to slowly make me replace the other girl's tongue. We lightly played back and forth, and I felt so much more comfortable with this kind of tongue kissing. I could taste Gavin, which was strange and somehow hot. He tasted mostly like toothpaste, though, so it wasn't the most interesting taste. 

He pulled away soon, and I rolled off of him and back on his side. I was out of breath, just from kissing him. 

"It's evident I don't go outside much by that wearing me out, huh?" I joked. 

Gavin just pulled me closer, into a hug. "Thanks for the entertainment, I'm actually ready to go to sleep now." 

"Oh, so I bored you to sleep? Good to know." 

"Shut up, Ray," Gavin said. He kissed me one more time before getting up and going back to his own room. 

"Goodnight, Vav," I said as he left. With my door now open and light from the hall streaming in, I could now see more than his nose. 

He saluted to me and replied, "Night, X-Ray, keep up the good work." 

I was already falling asleep as he shut my door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got through this chapter and I realized that I could finish this up in just a couple chapters if I really wanted to... But then I decided I don't and I could go on in this story for quite a while, as long as people are still interested. So yeah, there's still a lot left to come. :D


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to say this earlier, but I threw all of their actual ages out the window, that doesn't matter here, especially considering they're all in high school at the same time. So anyways, pay no attention to actual ages or age differences in this.

At lunch the next day, I looked around to all my friends and realized that all of them, except Ryan, either knew Gavin and I were dating or knew that there was something between us. I was scared to come out and do the big announcement, but I realized they knew, and they were fine with it. There was no reason for me to make Gavin pretend he wasn't my boyfriend now. 

"Gavin and I are dating," I blurted out, not even aware of what conversation I was interrupting. 

"Yeah, I know, fucker, I sat and watched you two flirt for hours yesterday," Michael replied. He wasn't even mad about it, he was just stating a fact. 

"Yeah, same," Geoff said. 

Jack smiled at us, "That's great." 

Ryan was the only one who had no clue about it. His reaction surprised me. "Wow, way to go, Ray, got yourself an older man." 

I stared at him, amazed that was his first response. I clearly had no idea how the inner workings of Ryan's mind went. 

Gavin smiled, "Yep, older, more experience, wiser." 

"That's a good joke," Geoff replied. 

Gavin gasped, offended, "Geoff, are you saying I'm not wiser than Ray? I've got those two years of life experience he doesn't!" 

"I think you might've used those two years to become less wise," Ryan observed. 

"Ryan!" Gavin squeaked. 

"With mental age accounted for, Gavin isn't actually older than Ray," Michael added. 

Gavin continued to argue, "I am completely mature for my age-" 

Geoff coughed, "Wrong." 

"Geoff! Stop it!" 

The table collectively laughed at Gavin. I grabbed his hand under the table. "It's alright, I'm fine with you as you are." 

Gavin smiled, but it fell as something occurred to him, "Wait, does that mean you don't think I'm wise and mature?" 

"Shh, shh, Gavin, don't question it, just accept it," I replied. 

Lunch was normal after that, everyone accepted that Gavin and I were dating easily, and I felt very relieved. I realized for not the first time that I was so lucky to have landed such awesome friends. Form beside me, Gavin squealed about something, and I smiled to myself. Gavin noticed my gaze and turn to face me, smiling brightly. The reason I had such great friends was Gavin, he came into my life, befriended me quickly, found some other friends for us, making us a comfortable part of a friend circle, and now he was giving me even more, he was my boyfriend. I still was unsure if we would work out, it was hazy and confusing, but since it was Gavin, I felt that maybe we were going to end up like this anyways. Behind my mother, he was the most important person to me. 

"What? You look like someone broke your brain? Was it me? Did my beauty break your mind?" Gavin said with a cheeky smile. 

Geoff and Michael groaned at his comments. 

"Really, Gavin?" Ryan said, raising an eyebrow in question. 

It was no surprise that right after I was thinking how wonderful and amazing Gavin was, he would say something like that. It was one hundred percent Gavin. 

"I was just astounded that you could squeal like a child so easily. Really, it's amazing," I teased. 

Michael said, "Oh, me too, I feel you." 

"Ray! You're so mean!" Gavin said, putting his hand over his heart. "Really, I'm hurt!" 

"No you aren't," Geoff said, "Don't be a whiny ass." 

Gavin frowned, "Now Geoff's being mean!" 

I put my arm around Gavin's shoulder's and pulled him so he was resting against me, "It's okay, Gav." 

"Okay," He said, instantly replacing his frown with a smile and cuddling into my side. 

"But truly, you're looks did distract me along with you're squealing. You look really nice," I whispered, so only he could hear. 

"Of course I do," he replied, cocky again. 

We were in the cafeteria, surrounded by our classmates, and everyone could see I had my arm around Gavin and question it, yet I stayed there. No one cared enough to look over here, and if they did, I could deal with that later. Gavin was too important to worry about what others thought all the time. 

 

 

"Gavin, out. Let me sit with my bro today," Lindsay said, standing in the bus aisle. 

"No, you can't make me!" Gavin said, but his protests didn't even phase her. 

"Move," she said, pulling him out of the seat easily. Gavin was pretty little, he couldn't do much to fight back, but he wouldn’t anyways. He was the type to simply whine for awhile afterwards. "Go sit with Michael. You live with Ray, you can see whenever you want." 

Gavin grumbled, but went and sat with Michael, three or four rows behind me and Lindsay. As soon as he sat down with Michael, I could he him happily chatting away, getting over his anger quickly. 

Lindsay plopped down beside me, and her forcefulness confused me. During Health that morning, we didn't have much time to talk because we actually had a test, but the few times we did get a chance to say something, she seemed happy, and when I asked about her date, she blushed and grinned like crazy. I wondered what happen to make her ticked off. 

Instead of asking directly, I decided to ask about her date, in attempt to cheer her up. "So, what did you do with Michael on Saturday?" I asked. 

"I know you already know, you're like Michael's closest friend beside his mom. It was great, but that's not my concern right now," she said, serious the whole time. Her face reflected her tone, and she was staring me down. "What about you and fucking Gavin?" 

I realized she didn't know we had made up. She must have been mad because I didn't tell her. "Oh, shit, sorry, Lindsay. But yeah, when you were on your date, Gavin was actually home, and we talked and worked things out. We're fine now," I smiled, thinking that we were more than fine. 

That didn't please her though. 

"Sorry for not telling you sooner, I completely forgot," I continued, but she still stared at me, her eyes burning holes in me. 

"Are you going to keep talking bullshit or tell me the truth?" 

"I don't even know what you're talking about, what's your problem?" I asked. 

"Ray. We're friends. We're actually really good friends. And yet you don’t even tell me when you get a boyfriend? You never even said anything like that about Gavin to me. If you would've, I probably could've helped you out a lot more quickly. Instead, I had to figure it out for myself by seeing you two all cuddly during lunch," Lindsay said, still staring straight at me. 

"That doesn’t mean anything," I argued. "I just put my arm around him, it was nothing." 

"Stop lying to me, Ray. After I saw that, I thought about you guys. And as I thought, I figured it out. It explained why Gavin was constantly staring at you with heart eyes, and why your fight was so serious, you guys wanted to bone each other!" 

I cringed a bit at her language. And after I got over my shock, I realized I had no good reason for not telling Lindsay. 

"Okay, shit, I'm sorry. We're dating now, but I never said anything about it before because I had no idea myself. I was completely blind about his feelings, and my own, to be honest. And he got mad last week when I called him my best friend, because he didn’t want to be my friend, he wanted to date, and it just freaked him out and made him distance himself. And then I'm so dumb that I didn’t even realize what was happen and I was completely off on all my reasons for why I thought he was mad. And then on Saturday, I talked to him just like you told me, and he just kissed me, and fucking made me confused as hell. But it also made me realize that like, I didn't know if I liked girls specifically, or even boys, but I did know that I liked Gavin more than I ever had anyone else, and I realized that my feelings for him were more than just friendly ones. So yeah, we got together. And. Yeah," I rambled on, eventually running out of words to say. 

Lindsay's stare softened and she smiled a little, "So you like Gavin?" she asked like a middle school girl. 

"Yes I like Gavin, I'm dating him." 

She squealed, a little bit like Gavin's trademark squeal. "He just kissed you?" 

I smiled, "Yeah. " 

"Is he a good kisser?" 

"Yeah." 

"And that's how you got together?" 

"Basically." 

"And why didn't you tell me sooner?" 

"I just told you, we didn't actually get together until Saturday!" I defended. 

"It's Monday, Ray, you had you're time," Lindsay argued. 

"We were also taking our time to tell people. Or I was at least. Gavin was okay to wait until I was ready to tell people," I admitted. 

Lindsay's face fell, "Oh, shit, I'm sorry, I never even thought about that, oh my god, I'm sorry for forcing you to tell me, shit-" 

"No, it's fine," I interrupted. "We've told almost all our friends, I was really okay with telling you, I just hadn't thought of it yet, that was my fault. I was just afraid that people wouldn’t be okay with us and we'd get beat up, or all my friends would leave us, or something awful. But I was just being stupid, everyone's been amazing. We're not going to tell everyone we know or anything, just our friends, but you're all amazing, I don't know why I was worried." 

Lindsay nodded. "So you know what this means?" 

"What?" 

"We can go on double dates!" She exclaimed. 

I laughed, imagining Lindsay, Michael, Gavin, and I all out on a double date. It would probably be amazing. "Definitely. Does this mean you and Michael are a couple now?" 

"Well, we're going on another date soon, and I guess." 

"That's great. So really, tell me how things went on Saturday, I want to hear it from your end." 

For the rest of the bus ride, Lindsay told me about her date with Michael, and she sounded so happy the entire time. 

We only stopped talking when we got to my bus stop. I tried to get out, but Lindsay kept me trapped in the seat until Michael and Gavin reached us.Lindsay slapped Michael's ass, and he grinned at her. Gavin pushed him forward and reached over Lindsay to me. 

"Fine, Ray can leave," Lindsay said, getting into the aisle to let me out. Gavin practically yanked me up and off the bus. 

Once we were off the bus and out of sight range, Gavin grabbed my hand in his. "Is this okay?" 

"It's great, Gav." 

Michael had followed us as we walked away from the bus stop. "Why did Lindsay sit with you?" 

"Oh, she figured out Gavin and I are dating. We're apparently not good at hiding anything," I told him. 

"We really aren't, huh?" Gavin replied. 

"That's good, I thought she was avoided me. She, uh, wasn't, was she?" Michael asked. 

"Nah, she was gushing about you as soon as I asked. You're good," I said. 

He smiled and patted my back, "Thanks, man. Well, I'm going home now, see you bitches tomorrow." 

Gavin and I waved goodbye to Michael and walked home, still hand in hand. 

"Everyone who needs to know does now, right?" Gavin said. 

"Yeah, I guess. Did you not want to say anything to your parents?" I asked for the first time. Gavin didn't talk about his parents much, I barely knew anything about them. 

"Um. Not really. Your mom is awesome and super supportive, and I don't know if my parents would be, but I'm too nervous to try. There's a reason I don't really have a problem living here for half the school year. Not that they're mean, I love my parents. We're just very, very different," Gavin explained. 

I nodded, completely fine with it. I voiced this to Gavin and he smiled. 

"You're amazing, X-Ray. I'm glad I found you." 

"Me too, Vav."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you so much to everyone who reads! Does anyone remember when I had a schedule and posted every single Thursday? That was funny. But really, i'm trying to update this once a week, but it changes on what day of the week. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this!


	17. Chapter 17

"Do you guys want to come over to my house again this Friday?" Geoff asked us at lunch on Wednesday. 

"Yes!" Gavin wasted no time in replying. 

Everyone else agreed with Gavin soon after. 

"Is you're mom doubting that you have friends again?" Michael teased. 

"No, she just couldn't wait to see me again," I replied. 

"I can't blame her," Gavin said, winking at me. 

Michael glared at us. "You never stop, do you?" 

"You're just jealous because Lindsay's not over here," Gavin said. 

Michael crossed his arms and let out a puff of air, proving Gavin right. 

"Why don't you just go over there and sit with her?" Ryan asked. We were all aware of the relationship between Michael and Lindsay now. Michael was still starry eyed for Lindsay, but he wasn't confident enough in himself to try to get too close with her. Lindsay, I assured him many times, was just about as interested in him as he was her. He didn't believe me. 

"Yeah, she doesn't even like those girls over there much," I said. She was sitting with Shannon, who Lindsay not affectionately nicknamed Bitch, and some other girls who she was still somewhat friends with, but who were also pretty shallow. After Lindsay finally gave up on Shannon, she had really kept up with it. She never talked to her outside of school, and even times like now when she was stuck sitting with her, simply because she had nowhere else to sit, she was civil, but never very into it. She had moved on to the likes of me and Michael. Some people might argue that we weren't any better than Shannon, but Lindsay liked us far more. It sucked that there were only six seats at a table, because if there were more we would have definitely had Lindsay sit with us. 

"Why is she sitting with them then?" Michael asked. "Is she trying to keep her distance from me?" 

"You guys are going on a date soon," Jack pointed out. "She must like you a little bit." 

"Obviously not," Michael said, because once he made up his mind on something, he could be very stubborn. 

Geoff sighed and abruptly stood up from the table and walked off. We all stared at him in shock. The time finally came when he had enough of us. We would probably be dead by tomorrow, if Geoff was sick of us. I wasn't surprised that it had happened, but I was surprised that I wasn't the cause of it. 

He returned shortly afterwards, though, with a chair in tow. He walked it right over to the end of the table where Michael and I sat and dropped it there, before going back to his own seat. 

"Quit being an ass and ask her to sit over here," Geoff said, not looking at Michael, just calmly continuing to eat his food, but making it evident he was talking to him nonetheless. 

"But we'll get in trouble," Michael argued, looking at the lunchroom monitor, who looked completely unamused with her job. 

"I said, stop being an ass and ask her to sit here." Geoff repeated. 

Michael was stubborn, but not a completely idiot. He got up from his seat and slowly walked over to Lindsay. We all watched as he said something to her. I could see Shannon glaring at him. She was such an unpleasant person. Lindsay, in contrast to Shannon, smiled and waved goodbye as she stood up and gathered her food. 

When Michael and Lindsay sat down at our table, Michael was bright red and Lindsay was still smiling. 

"Breaking the rules," Lindsay said, "I like it. Just so you all know, I'm not going to be leaving anytime soon." 

I mocked groaned. "God, Michael, why'd you have to bring her over here, she's such a pain." 

Lindsay punched me in the arm, "Shut up, fucker." 

"We let you have Gavin here, it's only fair," Michael said. 

"Hey!" Gavin said, suddenly paying very close attention to the conversation. "That's not cool." 

"Yeah, really, now you're comparing me to Gavin, I should be offended," Lindsay said. 

Gavin pouted even more, "Lindsay, you're not helping." 

"It's okay, Gavvy," I comforted him. "I'll let you have some cookies when we get home, will that make you feel better?" 

"You have cookies?" Gavin asked, surprised. 

"Yeah, we hid them after your first week here. Don't you remember that night when you ate every single cookie we had? We weren't going to let that happen again." 

"I thought you guys just stopped buying cookies, I didn't know you hid them. That's cruel," Gavin said. 

"No it is, it's necessary, you're like the Cookie Monster," I teased. "But I'll let you have two cookie when we get home, won't that be great?" 

Gavin nodded, excited about the cookies no matter what the circumstances were. 

Ryan laughed at us, "So is Gavin going through some sort of training, like you do for puppies? He gets a treat whenever he behaves?" 

"Be quiet, he doesn't realize it yet," I joked. 

Lindsay sat with us for the rest of lunch, and it was probably better for all of us, if only because Michael was a thousand times less pouty. We didn't get yelled at once, proving that the lunch monitor didn't actually give a shit about rules. 

 

 

I sat at my study hall table, and started to do my homework before Gavin got there to distract me. To my surprise, I looked up five minutes later to find him sitting in front of me, with books out, writing something down on a piece of paper. 

"Gavin, when did you get here? I didn't even hear you, that's a first," I said. 

Gavin nodded in response but didn't say anything. 

I stared at him, waiting for him to look up and smile, and then say something stupid. But he just sat there, and did his homework. For most people, that was normal study hall behavior, and I wouldn't mind, but this was Gavin, and for the entire two months he had been staying with me, had never actually done work in study hall. Whenever he did, he would always talk to me the whole time and barely get anything done. It was just how we did things. He would always get his homework done, usually once we got home and I refused to do anything with him until he did something, but never during study hall. I knew junior year was supposed to be pretty hard, and involved a lot of work, but that didn't quite explain his sudden change of pace. 

"Gav? Do you have a big project or something?" I asked. 

He shook his head, and yet again stayed silent. I continued to look at him, his stupid striped shirt, his fucking gorgeous hair, to his face, which was slightly pointed down, away from me. His mouth was in a straight, unamused line, his nose, well, it was normal, just as large as always, and his eyes, staring straight at his work, not meeting mine once. 

"Gavin, look at me," I whispered, kicking his shin softly. He didn't reply for a few moments. 

Eventually, he looked up, but looked slightly to the side instead of directly at me, and said, "I'm going to the bathroom." 

True to his word, he went up to the study hall monitor, said something to her, and walked to the hallway. I stared after him, dumbstruck about what had just happened. 

Did I do something to piss him off? I though about the day, and about our teasing of Gavin at lunch. To other people, they might be mad, but it was Gavin, and we did that every single day, so that couldn’t be it. And he wouldn't be mad at me either, I always take it easy on the teasing, and take Gavin's side whenever it gets too bad. But maybe he was having a bad day, and it struck him hard today. I decided to go after him. 

"Can I go to the bathroom?" I asked the study hall monitor. 

"I just let one boy go, wait until he gets back," she answered, 

I stood there, refusing to go back to my seat until she let me go. "You aren’t going to like having to clean up my pee," I warned her. 

A girl who was sitting at the table closest to the monitors desk made a sound of disgust. "She's not going to like it either," I added. 

The monitor starred at me before saying, "Fine." 

I nodded and smiled, walking out of the room at a fast pace. I wasn't going to let Gavin escape. 

Once I got to the bathroom, he stood at the sink, washing his hands. He didn't look up as I walked in, so he didn't see me walk up behind him, and push him back against one of the walls of a stall. He squealed, but was small enough that he didn’t fight me, even though I was pretty small myself. 

"What the fuck are you doing, Gavin, what's your problem?" I asked. 

Gavin smiled mischievously, "I like when you're all rough like this, it's hot." 

He giggled and pulled me closer by the front of my shirt, until I was literally right in front of him, inches from his lips. 

"What the fuck, Gavin?" I asked, thoroughly confused at his behavior. 

"I was just playing around, seeing if I could get you to follow me in here. It worked," he smiled. 

"You're a bitch. I seriously thought I did something to piss you off," I said. 

"Nope. I just wanted you to kiss me." 

I moved in even closer. "I should just leave now, just as payback." 

"You wouldn't," Gavin promised. 

He was right, I leaned forward and kissed him. He reached down to put his hands on my hips and pulled them closer to his body, too, so I was pressed up against him all over. I let him do that, enjoying the feeling of his entire body, for about a minute before a pulled back. "We're in the bathrooms, Gav," I said, looking over to a urinal, which was right across from us. 

He shrugged, "I don't care." 

"Obviously," I replied, before kissing him once more, quickly. "But as much as I'd like to kiss you, we can wait until we get home." 

He sighed and followed me out of the bathroom. "Guess I was lucky to get that much." 

I nodded. 

Once we were back at our table, Gavin picked up his usual chatter like nothing had happened. I was amazed at how silly he was. 

 

 

Friday night came quickly, and before I knew it, I was back at Geoff's house. His mom opened the door, and was immediately excited. 

"I can't believe it, you really are his friends, I thought he made you come over, I'm so glad he has you guys!" She gushed. "He's in the living room, you two can go on in." 

We greeted her and listened, going into the living room. Geoff was in there, playing Peggle, of all things. 

Gavin jumped with excitement, "Geoff, you have to let me play when you're done, you have to," and before we knew it, Gavin flung himself on top of Geoff. 

"Please," Gavin pleaded. 

Geoff laughed at him and pushed him off, before agreeing that he could play next. 

I sat in the chair that I had claimed as my own (partially shared with Gavin) and watched them play. They found out that they both loved the game, and played it nonstop until the others arrived, which was far later than the last week. 

Jack and Michael showed up at the same time. 

"Where have you fuckers been?" Geoff asked, not looking away from his game. 

"Yeah, we've been here for at least an hour already," Gavin added, also not looking up from Geoff's game. 

"I had to pick Michael up," Jack said. 

"We walked here," I said. 

"Yeah, I sure as fuck wasn't going to. I'm not wasting my time walking five miles." 

"It's more like three, but I get your point," I said. 

Ryan didn't show up for another hour later. During that time, we had finally forced Gavin and Geoff to stop playing Peggle and moved on to something more interesting for everyone else. 

Ryan didn't waste any time in knocking, he just waltzed right in and sat down like he had been there the whole time. 

"Where have you been?" Gavin asked from his place on the floor. He had laid down in protest for not getting to play anymore, which really didn't do anything for him. It just made it even easier to ignore him. 

Ryan shrugged, "I had some stuff to do." 

"Stuff?" Michael questioned. 

Ryan nodded. 

"What does 'stuff' entail?" Jack asked. 

"Nothing. I just had something to do. I don't interrogate you guys about your personal lives, do I?" Ryan snapped. 

Gavin laughed, "I think Ryan was killing someone. 

The rest of us laughed, why Ryan raised his hands in question. "Why is that the very first thing to pop into your head?" 

"Because you seem like the type," Gavin responded. 

"I just had some work to take care of, I certainly wasn't killing anyone, what is wrong with all of you?" 

"He's definitely guilty of something," Michael concluded. 

Ryan continued to defend his innocence, and I got bored of the conversation after awhile. I finished my turn playing and passed the controller on to Jack. 

"Gavin, you should get off the floor," I said. staring at the place where he was spread out, his shirt just a pulled up just a bit so it showed a sliver of the his stomach, and the hair that was there. As hot as it was, he didn't need to stay on the floor all night. 

He leaned up on his elbows. And looked around the room, presumably for a place to sit. 

"Alright, Ray, whatever you say," he said before getting up and walking straight over to me, sitting down on my lap. 

I laughed at him, but put my arms around his waist anyways, pulling him close. 

"Hi, Ray," He said, turning around to smile at me. 

"Hi, Gavin," I returned, pecking him once on the lips, just because he was cute. I sat my hands on his hips and we settled down in our seats. 

I passed on playing games for awhile, letting others go instead. When Gavin went, I could feel every time he squealed or squirmed around, which was much more entertaining than I would have expected. Just as he was about to sneak up and kill an enemy, I moved my hands up to his stomach quickly and poked him, making him gasp and drop his controller. 

"Ray!" He cried out, turning around so he could look at me. "That wasn't cool, bitch!" 

I laughed, along with everyone else except Gavin. 

"Oh, Ray, you fucked up, big time, you know, just doing what Gavin does to everyone else," Michael said from across the room. 

"Well, I'm done now," Gavin said, not picking up his controller from where it laid on the floor. He went limp on top of me his head resting beside mine. He threw his hands out on either side of him, completely trapping me. 

"Payback sure is a bitch, huh?" I whispered in his ear, wrapping my arm around his waist. 

"I was doing so well!" 

"You were going to die soon anyways," I told him. 

He stayed silent, not moving, for awhile before he said, "True." 

"Is there anything else we can do?" Ryan asked. "I like games, but there's got to be something else." 

Geoff shrugged. 

We looked at each other, and it looked like no one really had ideas. 

"We could go get dinner," Jack suggested. 

"Oh course the first thing you would go for would be food," Geoff teased. 

Jack didn't show that he minded. "Got any other ideas?" 

Gavin came back to life and sat up, "Let's go get dinner! It'll be top!" 

We all piled in Jack's car, and went strolling around town until we found somewhere we could all agree on, which took far longer than it should have. It was nine before we found ourselves seated at a restaurant. 

We were in one of the big round booths, which meant that we should have had plenty of room to sit comfortably spread out, but Gavin, of course, had to sit as close as possible to me. 

"Boys night out?" The waitress, who must've been just a couple years older than us, asked. 

Gavin answered her, "Yep! We're having bonding time!" 

"No we aren't, I don't need to get to know you any more than I already do, it might break me," Geoff said. 

"Oh, the more time you spend with me the more you'll like me!" Gavin insisted. 

The waitress laughed and continued to take our orders. 

Gavin, Michael, and I were seated on one half of the booth, while Jack, Ryan, and Geoff were towards the other side. We decided to team up against the other three to through various items at them. The straw wrappers and napkins bits went unnoticed by them until Gavin landed a ball of napkin in Jack's beard. 

We cheered and they decided to play our game, too. A few minutes later, when we were deep in our throwing competition when the waitress walked up with our food. Ryan was just throwing a straw wrapper and he missed completely, and it landed right on her tray, in between two plates. 

We all stared wide eyed at the waitress, who was extremely confused about what had happened. After a few, tense moments, she laughed. "I think you missed," She said to Ryan. 

He nodded, "I was not aiming at you in any way, I promise." 

She continued to laugh, apparently not bothered by it. "I've dealt with small children throwing their food at me, completely on purpose, I don't mind some paper." 

She passed out our food and grinned at us as she walked away. 

"I think she's eyeing Ryan," I commented. "She took that as flirting." 

Ryan considered it for a second, "Nah, even if she was, I wouldn't act on it. I'm too busy to deal with girls." 

"Me too," Gavin replied, putting his hand on my knee. 

"You're ridiculous," I told him. 

Michael ignored us, "What are you too busy doing?" he questioned Ryan. 

Ryan sighed, "You're not questioning me, implying that I'm insane are you? I think it's time you let it go." 

"Yeah, you better, before he kills you," Geoff told Michael. 

Ryan sighed again. 

"You didn't answer the question! That's suspicious! Everything you do is suspicious!" Michael argued. 

Instead of sighing again, Ryan smiled, "Michael, what I do in my free time is my business, and it will only become your when I end up in jail because of it." 

"When?" Michael questioned. 

"I meant if," Ryan said calmly. 

Michael just shook his head, "He's going to go insane on us soon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I love writing because it allows me to like write what I want to read, so I hope other people read things I write and are like, this is what I want to read, I'm glad this exists. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed it!


	18. Chapter 18

When we got back to Geoff's house, Gavin ran straight into the living room to put a movie in. 

"I guess we don't get a choice in what we're doing," Jack commented. 

"Yeah, Gavin tends to do that," I added. 

Geoff walked off after Gavin muttering, "There's no way in hell I'm letting him put a shitty movie on." 

The rest of us followed after them. I immediately went to the same chair I sat in every other time, and got settled in for the movie. I watched Gavin and Geoff argue about what movie to watch before Gavin apparently won, throwing his hands up in the air and cheering. Geoff turned off the lights as Gavin slid the disk in and then walked over to me, sitting down half in the chair and half on top of me. I moved over a bit to get more comfortable. The movie started, so I stopped moving around and accepted the fact that Gavin was still half sitting on me. It wasn't that uncomfortable. 

Twenty minutes in, I realized that Gavin had picked the most boring movie he could find. 

"What's up with this movie?" I whispered to Gavin. 

He smiled and turned on his side. "Well, who could've known that this movie was complete shite. We might as well pass the time doing something else," he hinted. 

I followed his lead and turned on my side, "Well, aren't you a sneaky little devil." 

He leaned forward, as did I until our lips met. I rested one of my hands on his hips and let the other hand rest around his belly button. His hands moved up to my face, and slid down slowly over my jaw. I moved from his lips and down his cheek, to his jaw, mimicking his own hands on my face. I kept going, down to his neck, kissing and sucking there. I decided not to hold back this time, and to give him a hickey, although I was considerate enough to pull it down low enough that he could hide it easily, if he wanted to. 

He moved his hands to my hair and ran his fingers through it for a little while before gently pulling my head back so our lips could meet again. I wasted no time, kissing him more fiercely than before. He responded by licking my lips, which I immediately opened to let him in. The kiss slowed down after that, and after about ten minutes of our kisses growing softer and slower, we parted. Gavin kissed my forehead, and we laid down, pressed against each other. 

 

 

The next day, Gavin and I were back at my house around noon, and we sat around watching TV for a few hours before Gavin said, "We should go shopping." 

"Do I get a choice concerning this?" I asked. 

"Nope, I was mostly just informing you that we were going shopping. Get off your lazy bum," Gavin said, standing up and nudging my leg. I listened to him and followed him out the door. we walked to the mall, which was about a twenty minute walk. We kept light conversation as we walked, and I halfway there I grabbed his hand. 

Gavin looked down at our hands, and the back up to me and smiled brightly. 

Gavin wanted to go shopping just so he could find some more clothes, because he had grown tired of all the clothes he had brought with him. We went from store to store, and Gavin occasionally found something he liked. He was looking through a rack of jeans when someone called my name. 

"Hey, Ray! Brown Man!" Someone called out. 

I turned around, surprised at hearing the name no one had called me for months. I saw my old friend, Josh, surrounded by two boys I didn't know. I hadn't seen or talked to him in months. 

"Josh?" I asked, confused from seeing him out of nowhere. 

"Yeah, man, it's been awhile. Been busy with school and stuff. It's great to see you," He said, patting me on the back. I was conflicted, because months ago, before all my friends completely ditched me, I would have been absolutely ecstatic about seeing them, but now I was somewhat mad. 

"Yeah," I replied, not having any idea what else to say. 

"Who is this, Ray?" Gavin asked, walking up beside me from where he was looking at clothes. 

"I'm Ray's friend," Josh said. "Who are you?" 

There was something weird in Josh's voice that I had only heard a couple times before. I had known him since we started school together, and we had been close friends, so I knew him well. Most of the time he was great, absolutely funny and extremely entertaining, but sometimes he could be cruel and harsh, like he had been with Michael when we were younger. His voice when he talked to Gavin kind of sounded like when he would talk to Michael. I shook off the thought, since he couldn't dislike Gavin already, he barely knew him. And Gavin was impossible to hate, he had more appeal than anyone I knew. I must have just imagined the rough tone of his voice. 

"Oh, you are? That's strange, considering I've been living with Ray for months and I've not seen you, let alone heard of you, for the entire time. You must be such good friends," Gavin replied with more sass than I think I've ever heard out of him. 

"Gavin!" I exclaimed. "What's your problem? He is my friend, we just went to different schools this year. Calm down." 

"Well, I'm sorry, but I have friends back in England, but they still talk to me, even though we're insanely far apart. So I find it hard to believe that changing schools would make it so hard for you two to talk to each other." 

"It's been a busy year, asshole, I've had a lot to do. Well, bye, Ray, I'm going to leave before your puppy can attack me anymore. I'll call you sometime, we can hang out sometime when you leave him at home," Josh said, walking off like nothing had happened, his friends following behind. 

I had to actually hold Gavin back from running after Josh. After he was far enough away, I let go of my very angry boyfriend. "What's wrong with you, Gavin? Why were you being such a jerk?" 

"Maybe I was mimicking how he treated you?" He asked, crossing his arms and staring me down. "How are you not just as angry as I am? How can he even call himself your friend?" 

"I don't think he meant to not talk to me for awhile. I understand, high school can get busy. It's a cool that he wants to hang out now. Maybe we can be friends again. Wouldn't that be great?" 

Gavin sighed and nodded slightly. "Sure, Ray, whatever makes you happy." 

I smiled and kissed him. "Thank you, Vav." 

"You're welcome, X-Ray."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating for the past couple weeks! I've had band camp and an engineering camp and I didn't have as much time to work on this as I expected. I'm going to attempt to put up two chapters this week to make up for it. And SPOILER ALERT, Josh isn't based off of any one real, he's like Shannon, they're not going to look very good in this story and I felt mean for making anyone an antagonist. Anyways, expect not good things from him. And possibly Shannon, who knows.


	19. Chapter 19

_You should come over tonight, we can hang out and I can kick your ass in Halo._

I woke up the on Wednesday morning to find a text from Josh sitting on my phone. I almost protested on the basis that it was a school night, but then I realized how lame that would sound. 

_That's a nice joke. I'll be over after school._

My plans for the day made me a bit quicker and happier in my getting ready process. Once I was showered and dressed I almost skipped into Gavin's room. He was half dressed, just pulling on his pants. 

"Oops," I said when I saw him, but made no effort to cover my eyes or leave to give him privacy. 

Gavin smiled at me, causing my heart to melt. We had only been dating for a week, so we were definitely still in the new relationship stage, where we were blinded by each other. I loved it. 

"Like what you see?" Gavin asked, striking a pose with his hands on his hips and his chest sticking out. 

I laughed and walked over to him, looking his over. "Of course, you're a hot piece of ass." 

Gavin laughed and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me to him. I place my hands on his sides, feeling the warm skin there. He kissed my forehead. "You're pretty cute yourself." 

"Cute?" I repeated. "I'll take what I can get, I guess." 

We stood like that for longer than we should have, considering we had to be at school. We joked back and forth, kissed, and talked about how we had to finish getting ready. 

"Boys!" My mom yelled. "You're going to be late!" 

I looked over at Gavin's alarm clock and saw that we only had ten minutes until school started. Gavin and I parted and scrambled to get all of our stuff gathered around. 

My mom led us to her car, since we had already missed the bus. 

"Thank you, Mom," I said, slightly out of breath from running out of the house. 

"What happens when you're late?" Gavin asked, full of wonder. 

I laughed, "Not much, maybe a detention if they're not feeling nice." 

"I hope we get a detention, that will be fun." 

I looked over at Gavin, who was sitting beside me in the backseat. He had a giant smile on his face, reflecting his joy. He was seriously excited about the possibility of getting a detention. 

"You're funny," I said, reaching over to hold his hand, which caused him to smile even brighter. 

His smile only fell when we got into the office and were sent to class with nothing but a warning. 

"Detention wouldn't have been fun at all," I consoled him as we were walking to his locker. 

"I know, but I could've told Dan that I got a detention and I could make him think I was turning into a bad kid, and it would have been funny," he replied. 

"Whatever you say." 

After he gather all his stuff from his locker, we went to mine, and then walked to my first class. 

"Oh, hey, by the way, I'm going to go over to Josh's house tonight," I said, suddenly remembering the text I received this morning. 

Gavin stopped in his spot, and stared at me, mouth hanging open. 

"What?" I asked. 

"You're playing a joke on me, right?" he asked. 

"No. Why?" 

"You're really going to his house? Even though you know he's just a giant asshole?" 

I crossed my arms, "He's not an asshole, let me remind you that he was my friend long before I even knew you." 

"But when you did know me, he was a complete bastard to you!" Gavin exclaimed. 

"What is your problem with him, Gavin? You should be happy that I have friends other than you! Would you just drop it?" 

Gavin sighed and nodded. "Fine, Ray, I'll stay quiet for now. And I'll also be here when he fucks you over, which I know will happen." 

"You don't know anything," I snapped, before walking off to my first period class, leaving Gavin alone in the hallway. 

 

 

Things between Gavin and I were tense for the rest of the day. He didn't say a single word to me during lunch, and I followed his lead. He didn't talk to me during study hall, either. Usually, after school, Gavin would wait for me, or I would go find him at his locker, and then we'd go to the bus together. Today, he was nowhere to be found, not that I was looking. 

On the bus, I found Gavin sitting with none other than fucking Shannon. I shook my head and slid into my normal seat, not letting it bother me. He was punishing himself more by sitting with Shannon than he could ever bother me by it. 

Michael landed in the empty spot beside me. "Dude. You fucked up. Either you fucked up or Gavin did, I don't know, I don’t care, fix it, you guys are awful at fighting, you just look like middle school girls." 

I stared at Michael, who was sat in the seat beside me, his hair framing his irritated face. He had one leg propped up against the seat and didn't say anything else until we were almost to our stop. 

"Seriously, Lindsay's pissed at me for not knowing you guys were in some fight in the first place. Is there really anything that's a big enough deal for two couples to get mad at each other for?" Michael continued. 

"Sorry," I replied. "but it's not me as much as it's Gavin." 

"Fucking Gavin," Michael cursed. 

"And do you see him? He's sitting with Shannon, trying to make me jealous or some shit. That's the dumbest idea ever." 

Michael turned around, not stealthily at all, and looked at Gavin. When he turned back around, he said, "It is Gavin, I wouldn't expect anything less than stupid from him." 

"Yeah," I replied, doing my best to not let any fondness seep into my tone. I was pissed at Gavin, he had been such a stupid asshole the entire day, but I wasn't mad enough to stay mad for very long. 

"Just promise to make up soon." Michael said as we pulled up to our stop. 

We stood up to get off, and I glanced backwards, just long enough to see Gavin's relieved expression. He was probably relieved to finally get away from Shannon. I held back my laughter and nodded, "We'll be okay soon." 

Michael nodded, accepting my answer, and we walked home together. Gavin stubbornly stayed at least ten feet behind us the entire walk. When Michael went in another direction to go to his own house, he said, "Bye Ray. Bye Gavin." 

"Bye," Gavin and I said in unison. Michael looked between us, and laughed, before walking away and shaking his head. 

I considered saying something in apology to Gavin, but I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket before I could say anything. 

_Are you still coming over?_

Josh's text reminded me why I was mad at Gavin, and gave me fuel to stay angry for a little longer. 

_On my way._

I opened my front door, set my bag down, and headed out the down right as Gavin came in. There was a split second where both of us stopped, each with something to say, but we apparently both came to the conclusion to wait. I left, to go down my own path, to make my own friends. 

 

 

"What's up with your British kid?" Josh asked me as we were seated in his living room, playing Halo. It was just me, him, and his friend named Caleb, who I didn't know but seemed cool from the last hour I had spent with him. 

My concentration on the game slipped for a second. "What do you mean?" 

"He seemed really weird and clingy. Like does he have a stick up his ass?" 

"No, that's just Gav. He's can be like that. He's really awesome when he calms down, he can just be a little high strung sometimes," I answered, unable to fully regain my focus. Talking about Gavin had given me a weird, almost guilty feeling. 

"His accent was awesome," Caleb added from Josh's other side. 

I nodded in agreement, even though they weren't looking directly at me. "He has a bunch of weird things that he says, that claims are British slang, but I'm starting to doubt it." 

"He still seems weird," Josh concluded. 

I didn't reply. 

 

 

"I should go home now," I said around 11. "My mom will be pissed if I get home too late." 

"Alright, if you have to," Josh said. "Come back over whenever you want, man." 

"Will do. It's always a pleasure to watch you suck at almost every game you play," I replied. 

"Screw you," he replied with a laugh. 

I waved goodbye to Caleb, who was almost passed out on the couch, apparently used to going to sleep much earlier. He was a really cool guy, I was glad I had met him. 

It was also great to hang out with Josh again. There were some awkward moments in between us, but I chalked those up to us just not spending time with each other for awhile. It wasn't going to be as easy as when we saw each other everyday and knew each others lives completely. It was going to take some getting used to. 

I arrived home to a silent and dark house, meaning both my mother and Gavin must have already been asleep. I went straight to my room, letting any homework I had wait until the next day, changed quickly into a loose t-shirt and some sorts to sleep in, and got in my bed. By that time, it was almost midnight, and I should have been tired, but I couldn't fall asleep. I probably had too much caffeine in my system. 

I stared at my ceiling, and occasionally out the window, begging for sleep to come. It didn't. 

At one point, as I was counting sheep, my door slid open. I propped myself up on an elbow and looked at my door to find Gavin sticking his head in. We made eye contact, and he stayed where he was, staring at me. 

"You going to come in?" I finally asked. 

Gavin nodded and entered my room, closing the door behind him. He made his way over to my bed, not tripping on anything, surprisingly, and pointed to the empty space beside me. 

"Is this okay?" he asked. 

"Yeah." 

He lifted up my covers and slid in beside me, still managing to keep a nice distance between us, even in my relatively small bed. I sighed, and decided to completely let my anger go. I couldn't stay mad at Gavin. 

"Come here, Vav," I said, reaching forward so I could pull him closer. He hummed in response and rested his head on my chest. I ran a hand through his hair. 

"I'm sorry for saying rude things about your friend, Ray. I didn't really mean them, I don't even know him," Gavin said, his voice slightly muddled by my shirt. 

"It's okay, Gav, I should have just talked it out with you, not gotten pissed right away," I returned. 

"So we're both sorry and we both want to be buddies again?" Gavin asked. 

I laughed, "We're always buddies, even if we're mad at each other. But yeah, we're good now. Let's not fight over anything that stupid again." 

"I can't make any promises," Gavin replied. 

"I know. You fucking sat with Shannon to get revenge on me. I know we're both going to be doing really stupid things, and we'll probably get pissed about it. I guess it'll help if we know we don't mean it," I tried. 

"It's late, Ray, you're not making much sense." 

"I know. Just, we're both pretty stupid, we should just remember that." 

Gavin pulled his head off my chest. "Okay, stupid." 

"Great, dumbass," I returned. 

Gavin chuckled, and kissed me softly. 

"You know, I hung out with your mum today, it was actually fun," he told me. 

"Really?" 

"Yeah! She let me order a movie off demand, and made a huge bowl of popcorn. I really like her, she's awesome." 

"That's so weird, picturing my mom and my boyfriend hanging out. Like, usually when you're with her, so am I," I replied. 

"Yeah, but it's good because she's cooler than most moms. She's definitely cooler than my mum." 

"What's your mom like?" I asked, suddenly curious. 

"She's a mum. She's always worried. But she's nice. I don't know, she's just my mum." 

"That's about the worst description of a person I've ever heard," I teased. 

"What am I supposed to say? She enjoys watching really terrible television, what more do you want?" 

I put my hand on the side of his face, "That's good, wonderful, I feel like I actually know her now." 

"Stop being a prick." 

I kissed him and we laughed. I was happy to be over our short fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Yet again, thanks to everyone who reads this, I hope you enjoy it! I know I really enjoy writing this fic, I'm going to have another chapter up as soon as possible, I know it sucks to wait for them.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next few weeks passed, creating a routine.

The next few weeks passed, creating a routine. I would go to school, hang out with Gavin most days after school, except for once or twice a week when I would go over to Josh's. I invited Gavin the first couple times, but he always declined, no matter how much I asked. I eventually gave up. I would have fun hanging out with Josh, which was a break from the rest of my life. I didn't really need a break from it, I was completely happy, but it was nice to see what else was happening in the world. Gavin would be mad whenever I came home from Josh's, but he always tried to hide his anger from me. I always noticed. Every time I saw how my actions hurt him, my stomach would flip over with guilt. It then became a habit that after I spent to evening at Josh's house, I would spend the night in Gavin's room, comforting him. By the next morning, everything would be back to normal. 

Another routine we had was that every Friday, we went to Geoff's house. The first few times he asked us over were just isolated events, but they kept happening, until it become an unspoken rule that on Fridays we went to Geoff's. Fridays were by far my favorite day. We spent most of the night playing games, but when it was my group of friends gathered together, they were somehow more fun than usual. 

"Fuck, Gavin, don't you dare shoot me, we're doing so well," Michael said one Friday, as he and Gavin were playing together. 

I was sat beside Gavin, and every time he squealed and jumped, he ran into me. 

"Why would you think I'd do something like that, Michael?" Gavin replied, but I could see his body slightly shaking with laughter, signaling that Michael's character was about to be betrayed. I didn't say anything, and let Gavin have his fun. It was a lot more entertaining when Gavin screwed someone over in a video game and it wasn't me. 

Surely enough, Michael's character fell to the ground, and there was an eruption of anger and laughter afterwards. 

"Goddammit, Gavin, what the fuck is wrong with you? I knew you were going to do that, I should've killed you before you even got a chance to do anything," Michael yelled, tossing his controller on the ground, and storming into the kitchen. 

Everyone else laughed at his misfortune. Gavin was laughing so hard that there were only high pitched gasps coming from his mouth. He laid back to rest on my, his entire body shaking. I put my arm around his waist, pulling him even closer. 

"You’re such a jerk," I teased him. 

"He's mostly just an idiot," Geoff chimed in. 

"It was actually really bloody hard to kill him, he knew it was coming, he was watching me the whole time. I think it's actually a testament to my smartness that I was able to finally kill him," Gavin defended himself. 

"You just made yourself sound so dumb, you literally accomplished the exact opposite of what you were trying to do," Jack commented. 

Gavin just shrugged and rested his head back on my chest. "Ray thinks I'm clever, don't you?" 

I nodded, "Of course you are." 

Ryan laughed, "You're so whipped, Ray." 

I mimicked Gavin's shrug, "I really don't mind, it's worth it." 

Michael came into the living room, throwing himself into an empty chair. "Lindsay's coming over. I need some moral support here." 

"Awe, Michael, I'm sorry for killing you, do you need a hug to cheer you up?" Gavin asked. 

"I'm going to let Lindsay take care of that. I'd like to kick your ass, though, if your up for that," Michael offered. 

Gavin squealed and ran behind my back, hiding behind me. 

"That's not your best idea, I literally can do almost nothing to protect you. If Michael really wanted to kick your ass, you'd be screwed," I told him. 

"Shh, just keep up the illusion that you'll protect me. Maybe he doesn't know how weak you are," Gavin fake whispered. 

"You can tell just by looking at him," Geoff said. 

"You've not been any help, Geoff!" Gavin exclaimed, which caused Geoff to giggle to himself. 

"Hey, Geoff, you should ask your 'girlfriend' over, too," Ryan said. 

"She's in fucking college, Ryan, she can't just drive all the way here whenever I ask," Geoff replied. 

"Or she's not real," Ryan said in a sing song voice. 

"Shut up, asshole, she's real." 

We stared at each other, each of our faces equally filled with doubt. No one knew how long Geoff was going to keep up the girlfriend charade, but it seemed like he had no plans of stopping. 

A knock on the door signaled that Lindsay had arrived. 

Michael got up and welcomed her, bringing her into the living room with us. "And speaking of girlfriends, here's mine. She's real and everything." 

Everyone but Geoff and Lindsay laughed. 

"Am I missing something?" Lindsay asked. 

"Not anything real. Geoff has a girlfriend, but none of us have ever seen or talked to her." 

"She's fucking real!" Geoff exclaimed. 

We stopped teasing him after that, and instead focused on Lindsay and Gavin, who were now playing together. 

"Be careful, he's going to kill you," Michael warned Lindsay. 

She laughed, "No he won't." 

True to her word, Lindsay managed to shoot Gavin's character right in the head, just as he was aiming at her. 

"What?" Gavin asked, surprised and confused. 

Michael high fived Lindsay. 

"Kiss my ass, Free," She exclaimed. 

"Let's play again, no killing this time, from either of us," Gavin said. I held back my laughter, because I could tell he was lying. Lindsay apparently couldn't tell, and accepted the request. 

I watched as they played, particularly watching Gavin, waiting for the moment he would turn on her. I was so distracted by his moves that I didn't even notice when she threw a grenade at him, although the others apparently did. All I saw was a flash and then a message saying Gavin had died, coupled with the sound of my friends laughter. I pieced together what had happened, and joined in myself. 

"Lindsay!" Gavin cried. "We were supposed to play nice this round!" 

"I see through your crap, I knew you were plotting against me," Lindsay said. 

They continued playing with each other, each time ending up exactly the same, with Gavin's death, showing that Lindsay was clearly much more skilled than Gavin was, which was surprising because eh was actually pretty good when he wasn't messing around. She was just better, evidently, at least at that game. 

Halfway through their fifth round, I received a text. 

_Come over, Caleb and Kdin are here, we're about to have a fucking blast._

I looked at my friends who were currently sat around me. 

_Sorry, I can't, I'm at a friends house._

A few minutes later, I received a reply. 

_Where is it? We're coming over._

I swallowed, shocked by his bluntness. It wasn't even my house, I didn't feel comfortable inviting three random people over. I knew Josh, though, and I knew what he was like now, so I knew I couldn't talk him out of it. He was going to come over. 

"Hey, guys, is it okay with you if a couple of my friends come over?" 

"Sure, whatever," Geoff said. Some others nodded or said things in approval, but I couldn't miss the way Gavin's shoulder's tensed and he lost the grip on his controller. 

With almost everyone's approval, I sent Josh Geoff's address. 

Gavin was killed yet again by Lindsay, and this time he simply passed his controller on to Jack. He got up from his spot beside me and walked over to our chair, curling up there. I sighed and followed him, squatting down in front of him. I reached forward and grabbed one of his hands. 

"What's wrong, Vav?" I asked. 

"You know I don't like him, why did you invite him here?" 

"I didn't invite him, he mostly invited himself. But don't worry, just relax, it'll be fun, I promise. The only way you won't have a good time is if you stay worried about him being here. Just let it go, and you'll see how cool he is. Then maybe we can all hang out." 

Gavin stared at our hands, not looking any happier. I decided to take drastic measures. 

"You've forced me to my last resort, Gavin, I just need to see you smile," I said, and then quickly started tickling his stomach before he could process what I had said. 

"Ah, Ray, ah, that tickles," Gavin squealed, squirming around in the chair. 

"That's kind of the point," I replied, still tickling him. 

He continued to squeal and fell onto the floor, right in front of me. I slowed my motions until my hands were simply resting on his sides. His face was bright and he had a smile on his face. 

"You play dirty, X-Ray," Gavin said. 

"I do what I have to," I replied. He shook his head and leaned forward, kissing me softly. 

"I'll be nice tonight, just for you," Gavin promised as he pulled away. 

"Thank you." 

"You two are dorks," Lindsay said, sitting down beside us, having passed her controller on to Michael. "You know, you promised me we'd go on a double date sometime," she said, elbowing me. 

"A double date?" Gavin asked. "That's be top! When are we going?" 

"I don't know, I guess whenever you guys want to. You know what, if its okay with you guys, we should go see a movie next Saturday, the four of us. Then maybe we can go back to my house and hang for awhile." 

"I like the sound of that," I said. It would technically be Gavin and I's first date. I felt like a shitty boyfriend at that moment, because I hadn't even considered taking Gavin out on a date. My experience, or lack thereof, with relationships was probably starting to show. 

"Great, it's a date.," Lindsay said. "Hey, Michael, we're going on a double date with Ray and Gavin next Saturday." 

"Cool, whatever," Michael replied, his focus remaining on his game. 

"Now would be the time to get him to agree to anything," Lindsay giggled. "Hey, Michael, I'm the hottest person you've ever seen, right?" 

"Yep," Michael replied. 

"Ooh, let me try!" Gavin said. "Hey, Michael, I'm a genius, aren't I?" 

"Shut the fuck up, Gavin," He replied. 

"Dang," Gavin said, disappointed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mostly fluff because that's what I do. Next one might not be that way. I hoped you enjoyed this, thank you so much for reading!


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some awful slurs in here, heads up!

A knock on the door brought instant tension to Gavin's body. He was leaning up against my side, still mentally recovering from the brutal ways Lindsay had defeated him. 

"Hey, Vav, calm down, it'll be great," I soothed as I got up to answer the door. I looked back at Gavin right before I opened the door and smiled at him. There was a lump in my stomach that I couldn't ignore, and for a second I considered opening the door and telling Josh to go home. I shook my head and pushed the thoughts away. 

"Hey!" I said as I opened the door to reveal Josh, and his friends, Caleb and Kdin. 

"What's up, loser?" Josh said, walking past me into Geoff's house. 

Caleb and Kdin looked at each other, and then at me. I shrugged in reply and motioned for them to follow, "C'mon, we're hanging out in the living room. Playing games and such." 

We walked in to find Josh already seated on the couch with a controller already in his hands. I was confused, because Jack and Geoff were in the middle of a level they were playing, but then I chalked it up to Jack being nice and stopping their level just so the newcomer could play. My theory was backed up by Geoff's pissed off body language as he slumped in his chair. 

"These are my friends: Josh, Caleb, and Kdin," I said, pointing to each of them as I said their name. 

"You're distracting me," Josh called out. 

"Boohoo," I replied, going back to sit by Gavin, but keeping more space than before. Josh and his friends had no idea about Gavin and I, and I wasn't comfortable enough to tell them. I hoped Gavin understood. 

I had expected the evening to continue as it had before, just with a few more people, and for the most part it did. Caleb and Kdin were both quiet and reserved at first, but after awhile of my friends' and my banter, they joined in easily. I was yet again reminded of how cool those guys were. 

But there was still a noticeable chunk of tension in the room. Gavin and Geoff stayed mostly silent. I tried to Bring Gavin into the conversation a couple times, and I could tell he was making an effort, but his replies were always short. 

"Hey, Gavin, remember that ice cream shop we went to when Mom made us going shopping at that one mall? They had an insane amount of flavors," I said when the topic of ice cream came up. I thought back to Gavin on that day, he was completely overwhelmed by all the ice cream. At one point he zoned out for a good five minutes, just blankly staring around the shop. I had almost peed myself laughing. On top of that, I knew he loved whatever weird ice cream he had gotten. In typical Gavin fashion, he picked the grossest, strangest sounding flavor he could. 

I had expected that to be a good topic to get some life back into Gavin. 

"Yeah, it was top," he replied, lacking his normal enthusiasm. "There were more flavors there than at the store." 

"Wow, so you're saying that an ice cream shop had more flavors than a regular grocery store? Amazing. I can't believe it. Someone call up the press, they're going to want to know this," Michael said, his mood not dampened at all by the tension in the room. 

Gavin didn't even attempt to defend himself. 

While Gavin's quietness was out of nature, it wasn't near as bad as Josh. I was one hundred percent sure Josh was oblivious to the awkward situation, as he proved it again and again by saying the exact wrong thing. His comments were harsh and unnecessary, not funny and mostly not true like Michael's were. He was my friend, but there were times where I couldn't find any way to defend the things he would say. 

My main mistake of the night was continuing to move on and forget the things that josh would say or do that night, because it came back to bite me in the ass. 

Josh was still playing, as he hadn't let go of the controller since he had gotten there. For everyone else, we would take turns, never playing more than two or three rounds in a row, but he refused to catch on to the pattern, or if he did he ignored it. He must have been bored still, because he was babbling on about his views on the world. 

The rest of us would occasionally comment on what he would say, but he would rarely respond to our replies, he would instead continue to talk. His views on business or schooling didn't really interest us, because we were in high school. All of us, except for Josh, really didn't care. Then he got on the topic of same sex marriage. 

My spit got caught in my throat when Josh said, "But you know what? I can handle most things, except for the fucking fags." 

Gavin instantly stilled beside me, not that he was doing much to begin with. No one said a word, except Josh. 

"It's disgusting, I don't want to see two guys making out in public, god, it makes me want to puke." 

Each word felt like a stab in the chest. Josh had been my childhood friend, I thought I knew him well. Over the past year, I had started to learn that everyone grows up. People don't stay the same as they grow older. I realized this too late. 

I couldn't find the courage to open my mouth, to do anything to stop him, so I had to listen to him go on. 

"They don't deserved to be recognized like everyone else, they're fucking disgraces. I mean-" 

"Shut up," Geoff said in the most intimidating voice I had ever heard out of him. 

"What? Do you like cocksuckers? Are you defending them or something?" 

"You barely know any of us, I think it's a bit soon to start spewing out your homophobic views," Geoff replied. He sat up, adding to his intimidation factor. 

"Oh, I get it, you're gay aren't you? Am I hurting your little sissy feelings?" 

"Maybe I am. What do you have to say to me?" Geoff said. 

Josh laughed, "I've got so much to say to you, I could go on and on. What's wrong in your head, who fucked you up as a child? You have to be truly fucked up to want to do that to another man. I can't even think about it, I truly want to puke." 

I let out a loud gasp, realizing I had been holding my breath. I couldn't regain control of my breathing either. I found myself gasping, trying to get air in my lungs. Gavin was at my side instantly, rubbing my back. 

"Ray, Ray, calm down, breathe, deep breaths, come on, you can do it," He soothed. 

I tried to listen to him, but all I could manage was choked gasps. 

Lindsay came to my other side, adding in her own soothing words, but I couldn't really hear them. All I could hear was Josh's voice in my head, his words stabbing my with every passing second. 

I was vaguely aware of Gavin's arm around my shoulders, pulling me to his side, enveloping me in his warmth, which was slightly comforting. I lost awareness of most of my surroundings, just aware of Gavin and the awful words passing through my head, until all of that was interrupted by shouting. 

"What the fuck is wrong with him? Don't fucking tell me he's a fag, this has to be a joke-" 

"Get out." 

"Fine, I don't want to be this close to those kind of people anyways. I have no idea how you guys deal with that, how are you not disgusted with-" 

The voice was cut off quickly, followed by the sound of someone falling into something. I heard some gasps, and curiosity was starting to rise in me, but not enough to distract me from my shaky breathing and awful thoughts. I was aware of loud voices and slamming doors, but more of Gavin's voice, still speaking calmly. 

"It's okay, love, it's fine, he's gone now, you're safe, it's all done now, just calm down, alright? Remember the ice cream shop you were talking about earlier? Remember all of that ice cream? I was thinking about that after you mentioned it. There were so many flavors, really. What if there was cheese flavored ice cream? Would you eat that? I think I would. I'd have to try it, you know?" 

I slowly regained my breath, until I was back to normal. I turned into Gavin, resting my face on his shoulder. His hand was stroking my hair, which I barely noticed until now. 

"Thank you," I whispered. 

He pressed his lips to my head. "You're welcome, X-Ray." 

I fell asleep soon after that, worn out from the stress, and the thoughts that were still haunting me. 

 

 

I woke up slowly the next morning, and was aware of the people around me talking before I even opened my eyes. 

"He had the nerve to text Ray, and you could only imagine the awful things he was saying. I felt bad for reading his messages, but I didn't want him to see that first thing when he woke up. He isn't comfortable with that at all," A voice, who I recognized as Gavin, said. I kept my eyes closed, wanting to hear what else was going to be said in this conversation. 

"He's such an awful person, what's wrong with him?" Another voice, Lindsay replied. 

"I'm not sure, I just think he's a shitty person, and he was born that way. He was rude from the first time I met him, maybe he could tell I was gay. But even past that, he was terrible to Ray earlier. They used to be best mates, from grade school and everything, and Josh completely ditched Ray, as did the rest of his friends. His mum said he tried to reach out to them, but they just cut him off again and again. I knew Josh had to be a big part of that. And then when he came around again, and I realized who he was, I knew it wasn't going to end well, I knew something was going to happen. I feel so bad though, Ray was so lonely before. I mean. He would never tell me that. But his mum told me the story. He was just so excited to have his old friend back. I wanted him to be happy, of course I did, but he doesn't need friends who are going to treat him like shit." 

"Well, it's a good thing he has all of us," Lindsay pointed out. 

"Yeah, but I'll be gone soon, I don't want him to think I'll do the same thing his other friends did." 

"You won't be able to go a day with out talking to Ray, let's be real. You're probably going to drive your phone bill through the roof because you won't be able to handle going with out hearing your 'lovely little X-Ray's voice'. He knows you Gavin, You're better than they were. And he'll still have us, we'll always be there with him, even when you're hundred and hundreds of miles away." 

"Thanks, Lindsay, you're right." 

There were some footsteps, some rustlings, apparently signaling that their conversation was over. The next thing I knew, someone was squeezing beside me in the chair, cuddling under my blanket. I realized that I was in the chair I always slept in at Geoff's, which I hadn't been when I fell asleep last night. Someone must have moved me. 

I opened my eyes ad came face to face with Gavin. We stared at each other for awhile, neither of us knowing what to say. I looked all over his face, taking in every bit of it. 

I broke the silence by saying, "You're fuzzy." 

"What?" He asked, confusion crossing his face. 

"I don't have my glasses and you're really close." 

Gavin smiled. "We'll have to find those, I guess. I took them off for you last night, but I'm not entirely sure where I put them" 

"It's fine we can find them later. I don't feel like standing up yet," I laughed. 

Gavin reached over and grabbed my hand. "Are you okay?" 

"I'm better. It was just shocking. And horrifying. I didn't know Josh would turn so awful so quickly. I though he was my friend." 

"He was your friend, he's just not a good person. Don't let it get you down, yeah? We're all here for you," Gavin said. 

"Thank you, Gav," I said, kissing him on the cheek. "I don't know what I'd do without you." 

"You'd probably get a lot less action, I know that much," Michael said from where he was seated across the room. 

"Michael!" Gavin squealed. 

"Shut up, Gavin, they could hear you a mile away," Geoff said, entering the living room, in different clothes than he had last night. "Come on, assholes, we're going to get   
breakfast." 

I held Gavin's hand the entire drive in, needing his support. "This probably isn't going to be the last time we talk to Josh you know. We're going to have to deal with him eventually." 

He nodded, "But that time is not now, so we can worry about that later." 

"Procrastinator." 

"Takes one to know one." 

"In my defense, I usually wait to do things because I'm too busy playing games," I replied. 

"That wasn't defending yourself at all, you're just making yourself look worse." 

"At least I'm honest." 

Gavin kissed me quickly. "I know. I love that." 

I smiled at him and kissed him in return.

After that, I decided to check my phone, knowing that I had several messages that I hadn't looked at yet. Gavin watched me carefully as I did it, but didn't stop me.

I saw the texts from Josh, but I didn't read them, because I knew they didn't say anything I'd want to see. Instead, I looked at another text I got, from a number I didn't recognize.

_This is Caleb. I know you probably don't want to hear anything from me, but I wanted to apologize. Josh was out of line, it was awful of him to say all of that. It was pretty awful for him to even think any of that. I don't agree with what he said, I'm disgusted. Just because he's like that does not mean everyone else is, keep that in mind. Find the good people, okay? And keep those people close. Push the others far away. Again, I'm so sorry any of that happened. Please keep positive. (And by the way, you and Gavin are amazing together. Keep him VERY close._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was rough to write, It was a long process, but hopefully you guys like it! I had to work hard to get it up tonight, I wanted to get a chapter up before school started (I go back tomorrow). Because of school, work and practice, chapters might be rough to get up, but I'm still aiming for a chapter a week. Look for them on the weekends, but there's no knowing when exactly they'll com out. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy it!


	22. Chapter 22

"Tonight's homework is problems 1-40 on page 220. Have a nice day," my teacher said right as the bell rang. 

I sighed and quickly wrote down the assignment so I wouldn't forget it. Because I took the extra time to write down the assignment, I was almost late to my next period, Health class. I scurried in the room seconds before the bell rang. 

Lindsay laughed at me as I slid into my seat. "Taking risks now?" 

"No. My stupid Algebra teacher gave me homework after the bell rang. I suck at Algebra, too, it's like my brain is on a different setting, on that doesn't even recognize math," I complained. 

"I'd offer to help you, but I'm shit at math, too. Gavin can help you, can't he?" she asked. 

I laughed and put my head on my desk. The teacher didn't even bother to say anything about what we should work on for the day, she simply pointed at the board where an assignment was written. I ignored it. "He's tried explaining to me. He can't explain things worth a shit." 

"Dang. Ask at lunch, there's got to be at least one of our friends who can help." 

"I'll try," I replied, still seriously doubting that anyone would be able to help me. 

 

I listened to Lindsay, and at lunch asked, "Okay, so can anyone help me with my Algebra? I am so bad at it, I will literally fail the class soon." 

Gavin took my hand in his, "I tried to help you, you just don't bloody understand anything." 

"You couldn't probably explain to someone how to tie their shoes, don't blame it all on me." I said. 

"That is slander," Gavin said. 

"Shut up. Really, can anyone help me?" 

Geoff laughed, "I took my last math class last year. The only reason I passed was that the teacher didn't want to have me for another year. I'm not the person to go to." 

"I can help," Ryan said after he swallowed the food he was chewing. I'm taking Calculus this year, it'd probably be fun to work on some simpler stuff." 

I scoffed at him calling my work simpler stuff, but then I realized that Algebra was actually supposed to be insanely easy, comparatively. "Alright, but I'll warn you, I'm so stupid with math. I don't understand much. Or anything. I can add small numbers, that's the extent of my ability." 

"I like a challenge," Ryan said. 

We made plans for a homework session that night, at Ryan's house since I didn't want to make him come all the way to my house just to help me. 

"Geoff, can I go to your house tonight? Ray's mum is lovely but I still feel very strange being left alone with her." 

"You're a fucking baby," Geoff said, which meant yes. 

"I am not! We'll have a blast, though! While these losers are doing homework, we can party hard, and not do a bit of homework." 

"You've got that last part right." 

With plans made to get my Algebra problems worked out, I felt a little bit better, which made my afternoon classes pass much quicker than the morning ones had. Before I knew it, I was in study hall. 

"Hi," I said as Gavin sat down across form me. 

He skipped all greetings and rushed straight into what he had to say, "Do you remember the project that the teacher was going to let me do in slow motion? I told her my ideas for it, and she said it sounded wonderful! She didn't tell me it was stupid, or anything like that." 

"Of course she didn't, because your idea is great. It'll be awesome, I know it and apparently so does she," I replied. Gavin had told me all about his project, his eyes lighting up and his cheeks turning slightly red every time he talked about it. He was so excited about his project, and it made me really happy to see him so excited about it. 

"Thanks, Ray, you're lovely." 

"Oh, I know." I said with a smile. He kicked me lightly under the table and laughed. 

 

 

Once the bell rang, signaling the end of school, I called my mother, told her where I would be and asked if she could pick me up when I was done, and then said goodbye to Gavin, sending him on with Geoff. He kissed me on the cheek and waved as he left. Once he was gone, I went in search of Ryan. 

He was difficult to find, not being at his locker, car, or with any of our friends. I finally found him sitting on a picnic table outside of the school. 

"Why are you out here?" I asked. 

"I like to come out here to relax after school. It's a good place to think. I like it out here," Ryan said, standing up form the table. "Alright, let's go, get started on the adventures that are math!" 

"It's no adventure," I said. 

"It will be soon," Ryan replied. 

I didn't reply, and followed Ryan to his car. As we drove away, I realized that I had no idea where Ryan lived. He was driving to a different part of the city than all the rest of us lived, so I was slightly unaware of the area we were in. After about ten minutes of driving, we were surrounded by fields. Ryan eventually pulled into a driveway in front of an old farm house. 

"You live here?" 

"Yep. My parents got bored of their offices jobs and decided to buy a farm, and we moved out here," Ryan said nonchalantly. 

I looked around, taking in my surroundings. "That’s cool." 

Ryan shrugged and hopped out. "I'm not impressed by the farm that much, my favorite part is the animals." 

"Do you have a lot of them?" 

Ryan's eyes lit up and a slightly scary manner. "We have sheep, cows, horses, and chickens, but most importantly, Edgar." 

"Edgar?" 

Ryan nodded. "Come on." 

I followed his as he led me around the house, into the back yard. There was a fenced off field behind the house, where I could see animals walking around. He led me to a gate, which he climbed over with ease. 

"Um, I'm definitely not athletic enough for that. I just mastered jumping jacks. This is too big of a leap for me," I protested. staring at the gate in front of me. 

Ryan laughed, "It's just like climbing on a ladder, you can make it." 

He turned out to be right, I made it all the way up the gate with little to no problems, but then on my way to get down, I got my foot caught on the top and tumbled down, right into the grass. 

Ryan reached a hand down and pulled me up, laughing the entire time. 

"You told me I could do it." 

"I thought you could. Guess I was wrong. But at least you didn't land in cow poop. That would have been very likely." 

My stomach turned at the thought, and Ryan laughed even harder. After he got over his laughter at my misery, he led me through the field, until we got to a small fenced off section. Inside the area, there was a single cow. 

"This is Edgar," Ryan said proudly. He reached a hand out, and the cow walked right up to him, allowing him to pet on top of his nose. I didn't even know you could pet a cow.

"Why is he stuck in there?" I asked. 

"He's not stuck. Edgar chooses to be in there." 

I looked at Ryan, then the cow, who didn't seem to be that unhappy. "Does he get fed?" 

"Oh, yes, he's doing great, nice and healthy." 

I decided to accept it, and let it go, because I knew how Ryan was, always a slight bit crazy. I didn't want to say anything insulting about his favorite cow. "That's great, Ryan. Edgar seems amazing. Can we go work on my math, now, though?" 

"Yeah, let's go. See you, Edgar," Ryan said, leading me back to the gate, which I got over this time without falling. The inside of Ryan's house was really nice, very organized. We set down all our stuff at the table in the kitchen, and Ryan immediately got into business mode. 

He was probably saying the exact same thing as my math teacher did, but for some reason as Ryan said it, it made a lot more sense. Three hours later, all forty of my problems were done, and I understood what was going on for about the first time this year. 

"Thank you so much, I never thought I'd be able to do it," I told Ryan as I put my books away. "It almost seems easy now." 

"Just call me Ryan the Math Guy. Don’t really, though, that would make me sound like a giant nerd." 

"Alright," I replied. 

We sat in Ryan's kitchen after that, searching for things to snack on while waiting for my mom to come pick me up. At one point, Ryan said, "Just so you know, if that Josh kid ever tries to mess with you, I've got you back. Just tell me and I'll handle it." 

I had no idea what he meant by "handling it" but the thought was nice. "Thanks, Ryan." 

"No problem. He made me really made that night, I would be more than happy to set him straight." 

I laughed, really glad that I had my friends to support me, even if their support sounded kind of scary like Ryan's did. 

My mom arrived, and I waved goodbye to Ryan as we left. 

"Did you get your homework done?" My mom asked, in typical mom fashion. 

"Yeah, I did, and I don't feel nearly as dumb now." 

"That's good," she said. "I'm glad to see you with your friends, too. They all seem like such nice people." 

"Yeah, it was great of Ryan to help me, he basically summed up the entire Algebra class in terms I could understand. He did a much better job than Gavin did," I replied. 

My mom laughed, because she had walked in on the study session where Gavin had attempted to teach me Algebra, which had ended in with us arguing over whether or not Gavin could teach worth a shit. For the record, he was an awful tutor. 

"I hope so. Speaking of Gavin, do you want to watch a movie tonight, since he's not going to be home. It'll be a lot quieter." 

"Sure," I agreed. I needed something to keep me occupied when Gavin wasn't around, because like my mom had said, it is so quiet when he's not around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is the first chapter I've written since school started again, it was a little rough to get back into the swing of writing and going to school and all that jazz. I hope you enjoy it, and the next chapter will hopefully be up next weekend! (I might do something special for the next chapter, since Friday is my birthday and I like to write cool things on my birthday)


	23. Chapter 23

Halfway through the movie, I started to fall asleep. My mom had picked the movie, and she chose something she wanted to watch, so I wasn't very interested in it. I also began to miss Gavin, which made the movie seem even more boring without the constant stream of questions he tended to spew out. 

I pulled out my phone and sent a text to him. 

Me: _Movie night with my mom. Ain't no one cool as me._

A few minutes later my phone lit up with a reply. 

Gavin: _Sounds absolutely splendid. Geoff is bullying me._

Me: _I guess someone has to do it._

Gavin: _Boo. I miss you're stupid face a bit. I kind of want to kiss every inch of it._

Me: _You saw me a few hours ago, I think you'll survive._

I couldn't really judge him though, I was thinking just about the same thing. 

_You better be right, because you would be very upset if I didn't come back tomorrow_ , Gavin replied a few minutes later. 

We went on like that for awhile, and before I knew it, the end credits of the movie were rolling. 

Me: _Is Geoff mad that you're hanging out with him but spending the entire time texting me?_

Gavin: _Nope, he doesn't even know I'm texting you, I'm that sly._

A minute or so after I received Gavin's text, I got another one from Geoff. 

Geoff: _He is not being sly at all, I could read the idiot's last text clear as day. I don't even know how you guys can just flirt with each other for this long. You live with each other, you have to see each other enough._

I laughed as I read Geoff's text, an my mom looked over at me. 

"Did you pay any attention to the movie?" She asked. 

I shook my head, "Not really." 

"Were you texting Gavin the whole time?" 

"Maybe." 

"You're ridiculous," she said, with a smile on her face. "Okay, well I'm going to go to bed, goodnight sweetheart. Don't stay up too later texting the boy you literally see all the time." 

"Goodnight," I replied. 

Me: _Everyone keeps making fun of us for spending so long texting even though we see each other all the time._

Gavin: _Is Geoff laughing at you too?_

Me: _Yep. And my mom is._

Gavin: _We're not that bad! At least we don't have our tongues shoved down each other's throats all the time._

Me: _Sometimes I wish we did._

Gavin: _We'll have to test that out when I see you again ;)_

Me: _That sounds great._

I fell asleep that night on the couch, two hours later, with my phone in my hands. When I woke up, I found a next text. 

Gavin: _I guess you fell asleep. Sleep tight, X-Ray._

The ache in my neck and back from sleeping in a weird position was nothing compared to the joy that filled my from that small text. 

I met Michael at the bus stop thirty minutes later, alone for the first time in awhile.

"Hey," he greeted. 

"Hey," I replied. 

"Do you know what movie you want to see tomorrow?" He asked 

I was confused for a second, until I remember the double date plans we had made. 

"I have no idea what's playing now," I said. 

"I don't either. I too fucking lazy to look it up either. That means it's probably going to get down to Lindsay and Gavin fighting it out for what movie they want to see." 

"I'm already rooting for Lindsay's choice, whatever it may be. I think it's best sometimes to not let Gavin choose. He has questionable movies choices sometimes," I replied. 

"You think Lindsay's would be better?" he asked. 

"I can hope so." 

The bus arrived, and we piled on. I had to sit by myself today, but I sat across from Lindsay and Michael. 

"We've decided that you and Gav can fight it out over what movie we're going to see tomorrow," Michael informed Lindsay. 

She smiled sweetly. "He's going down." 

"Do you even know what's playing?" 

"Nope, but my choice is going to win." 

The bus stopped at the next stop, which was Shannon's stop. We had all tried our best to stay as far away from Shannon as possible, but the bus was the one place is was hard to avoid her. To my horror, she sat in the empty space beside me. 

"Where's Gavin? He didn't go back to England did he? He couldn't leave with out saying goodbye to me!" She said. 

"I'm sure he could," Michael muttered, loudly enough that I could still hear him, and Shannon probably could, too. Lindsay elbowed him but I could see she was holding back giggles. As soon as Lindsay stopped being friends with Shannon, she was completely done with her, and accordingly to Lindsay, life was much happier without Shannon in it. 

Either Shannon didn't hear or she didn't care, she continued. "He's just so cute, god, are all the boys like that where he's from?" 

"I'm sure they're not," I replied automatically. No one was like Gavin. 

"Oh, you can talk, that's good. So where is he?" 

"He didn't go home, he's with one of our friends," I said. 

"Oh good! So you live with him, does he ever mention me?" she asked. 

I coughed at the thought of Gavin talking about Shannon, or being interested in her at all. I was filled with a strange mixture of jealously and disgust. For some reason, my dislike for Shannon was extreme. 

I didn't know what to say in reply to her. As much as I didn't like her, I couldn’t just say, 'no, fuck off, leave my boyfriend alone,' which was the only thing that was popping into my head. 

"No Shannon, I promise you no one thinks about you as much as you think they do. In reality, most people don't even like you. Including Gavin. He's just too nice to ever say that to your face," Lindsay said, shocking both me and Shannon. 

"What was that?" Shannon asked, the anger rising in her voice. 

"You heard me, dumbass. Why don't you just leave Gavin, and the rest of us, alone? Go bother someone else." 

Shannon glared at her, "Fuck you, not like I want to be hanging out with you losers anyways," she said, and then stood up, even though the bus was still moving, and retreated to the back of the bus. 

"Holy shit, Linds, that was fierce." Michael said once the tension was gone. 

She slid down in her seat, smiling slightly, "She just pisses me off so much, now. And I know Ray couldn't tell her Gavin was taken, so I took action into my own hands." 

"Thank you, Lindsay, you're awesome," I said, stretching out in my once again empty seat. 

"Don't worry, I've got your back, bro," she replied. 

As soon as the bus stopped at the school, I started my hunt for Gavin. Normally, all our friends would meet up in the cafeteria, at the same table everyday, and wait there until the bell rang. When I got to the table, I found Ryan and Jack sitting there, talking about the new game releases of the last week, and whether or not they were good. 

"Has Ryan or Gavin been here, yet?" I asked. 

"No," Jack said, "I haven't seen them." 

I sighed and left, going to see if they were somewhere else. I passed Michael and Lindsay on the way out. 

"Looking for Gavin?" Michael asked. 

I nodded, "Have you seen him?" 

"No," Lindsay said. 

"Okay." 

My next stop was Gavin's locker, which was unsuccessful as well. After that, I looked in the bathrooms, and then the bathrooms on the other side of the school, until I was left wandering hopelessly around the school. As I turned down the deserted math hallway, someone ran up behind me and put their arms around my waist. "Guess who." 

"Well, there's only one kid with a British accent around here, so, I don't, maybe Gavin?" I said, my mood instantly increasing. 

He let me go and said, "Damn, I guess that was a dead giveaway." 

"Yeah, and there's also the fact that literally no one else would do that. And how unbelievably cliché that was," I said turning to face him. 

He had a pleased grin on his face. "You know you like it." 

I smiled back and looked both ways down the hallway before I kissed him, "Yeah, I do, actually. And to make it even worse, I missed you much more than I expected to." 

"But you just saw me yesterday," Gavin rephrased my statement from the day before. 

"Yeah, and it turns out a day can be a really long time." 

"Well, you just happen to be in luck. I have plans to stick around for awhile. I might even go to your house after school. And sleep there. And do the same thing on repeat for awhile." He said, grabbing my hand in his and leading us down the hallway, back to our friends in the cafeteria. 

"Really, now, I wouldn't have guessed that. I just thought you'd sleep outside the school, guess I was wrong," I replied. Even when we ran into other people in the halls, Gavin didn't let go of my hand, he kept it tight in his. I didn't even think of removing my hand, either. 

"Looks like you found him," Ryan said as we sat down at the table. 

"Aw, Ray, were you looking for me?" Gavin asked, squeezing my hand slightly. 

"I told you I missed you! And then I couldn't find you and I knew Geoff wasn't usually late so I had to go looking," I said. 

"That wasn't my fault. Princess over there needed his beauty sleep." Geoff grumbled. 

"And now I'm prettier than you, I know you're jealous," Gavin replied. 

"Oh, sure, sure," Geoff replied, before turning to Michael talking to avoid any more comments from Gavin on the subject. 

The bell rang a few minutes later, and we had to split up to go to our separate classes. Gavin gave my hand one more time and we split apart. 

"I'll come to your classroom before lunch, okay? We'll walk there together," Gavin said. 

I nodded. Since Gavin knew where all of his classes were now, it was kind of pointless to walk to all of out classes together, especially since we were often late to our classes when we walked together. We hadn't walked with each other for weeks, but today was different, apparently.

 

 

Later, I walked out of my classroom to find Gavin leaning against the wall. 

"How did you get here so quickly?" I asked.

"I might've asked to go to the restroom five minutes before class ended, and never went back. Shh, don't tell anyone," Gavin whispered.

"Whoa, that's a bit too rebellious for me. Back up, my pure soul can't handle the rebellion."

"Well you're going to shit yourself at this then," Gavin said, grabbing my hand again and leading me into a back hallway, and then inside the smallest bathroom in the school.

"Why did you just actually use the bathroom when you asked, you really didn't have to come get me the second class ended," I said as the door closed behind us.

"I never had to go," He said.

I stared at him, not comprehending the situation. Gavin looked at me like he expected me to catch on to something, but I couldn't think of anything. Finally he shook his head with a smile and pulled me into the first stall.

"Um, no thank you, I really don't need to be in here for whatever you need to do, really, Gavin-"

"Shh, Ray, you don't get it. Really, and you thought I was being cliche earlier, this is just as bad, if not worse. Remember what you said about us kissing last night? I think right now would be a great time for that."

"Oh, oh!" I said, finally catching on. Gavin nodded and before could say anything else he leaned in to kiss me,almost automatically opening my lips.

My hands went to his hair, blending in with the styled mess, while his hands fell to my sides, pushing me back against the stall door. His tongue slid against mine in an enticing way, making me not completely sickened by the thought of someone else's tongue in my mouth. It wasn't surprising, considering it was Gavin, and I found that I liked almost everything about him, even his tongue, as weird as that was.

He backed up for a second so we could catch our breath.

"What if someone comes in here?" I asked.

"Hopefully, they don't. If they do, it's not their business, they can go somewhere else."

"It's a public, school bathroom."

"Which is going to good use by us, right now. Don't worry," He said, rubbing his thumb on my hip.

"I never said i was worrying. Just wondering."

"How about we just kiss now?" He asked.

"Okay," I said, pulling him back to me.

We exited the bathroom fifteen minutes later, our lips red, Gavin's hair a mess, and suspicious smiles plastered to our faces. I didn't care one bit what anyone else thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long, I'm so slow. :( I hope you enjoy this, though! Thank you so much to everyone who reads this, don't be afraid to comment with your thoughts!


	24. Chapter 24

The final bell rang, dismissing us from school. Gavin smiled and jumped up from our table and held all his books in one arm, holding out his other hand to me. I took it, not concerned with who could see us. Holding his hand felt like happiness, and I found myself smiling, unable to stop. 

We went to our lockers and eventually out to the bus. Along the way, Michael joined us. 

"Well, aren't you two cute?" He said, laughing slightly. "I'm guessing you've had a good day?" 

"It was top," Gavin replied. 

"Yeah, same," I said. 

"So are you guys going to walk to Geoff's house tonight?" Michael asked. 

"Oh, yeah, I guess we will. I forgot we were going to go to over there. We'll have to go to the store and pick up some food first. I don't want Geoff to get pissed." I replied as we walked on the bus. 

"Stop by my house, I'll go with you. I don't have shit at home that I could take," Michael said. 

The bus ride passed and arrived to my bus stop. 

As soon as I entered the house, I threw my bag to the side, knowing I wasn't going to mess with it for the next couple days, and went up to my room. I gathered up a bag, a change of clothes, my toothbrush, and any games I thought we might need in the night. Gavin went off on his own, and I assumed he was doing the same thing I was. Once I had all my stuff ready, I went to the kitchen to find something to eat. 

"Gavin, do you want any food? Or are you just going to wait until Geoff's house?" I called out. 

I heard some fumbling and bumping around until he walked into the kitchen. He was wearing different clothes than earlier, now he was in a blue t-shirt and a loose pair of sweat pants. "Aw, Ray, are you making sure I eat all the time? I feel like you're my mum." 

"You weren't saying that when I was kissing you," I replied, walking up to him and pulling him closer by his shirt. 

He smiled, "True," Before leaning in to kiss me. 

"So why are you wearing that?" I asked as I pulled back, gesturing to his outfit. I knew he usually only wore those kind of clothes to sleep in, because during the days he wardrobe was limited to skinny jeans. 

"I'm too lazy to bring clothes with me. I might as well get comfortable now." 

"Sounds legit," I replied. "So food?" 

"You really are worried, aren't you, love?" 

"Shut up. Fine, we're leaving now." I said, grabbing my backpack and walking out the door, not looking behind me to see if Gavin was following, because I knew he was. 

We went by Michael's, to pick him up.

He answered the door and looked extremely surprised to see us. 

"Already? Really? Why the fuck did you even go home, I just saw you guys literally 20 minutes ago?" Michael asked. 

Gavin shrugged, "We didn't really have anything to do at home." 

"You could have told me, assholes. I'll be ready in five minutes," Michael said, waving us into his house. 

Gavin made himself at home immediately, walking right into Michael's living room, where his mom was watching television. 

"Hi, Mrs. Jones!" Gavin greeted. 

"Oh, hello, boys! Are you all heading over to Geoff's tonight?" she asked. 

"Yeah, we're walking over there with Michael. We just arrived earlier than he expected," I answered. 

"That's nice," She said, looking back to the television, obviously absorbed in the show. 

Gavin sat down on the couch, as if he lived there. I followed his lead, not wanting to be the one standing in the corner. 

"What's this about?" Gavin asked.

Mrs. Jones gave a brief synopsis of her show, but stopped talking as soon as the commercial break ended.

"I don't get it," Gavin whispered to me.

"I don't either," I replied. We decided to watch the show and try to understand it for ourselves.

"What is Michael up to? How long does it take to get ready? We're just going to Geoff's, there's no need for it too take this long," Gavin said five minutes later. 

"That's rich coming from someone who spends more time getting dressed than anyone I know," I replied. 

"I would get dressed right quick if I didn't get distracted so easily. I'll just find myself with one leg in my pants, checking my email for ten minutes. I don't believe that counts," Gavin defended himself. 

"I think that only made it worse, Gavin, dear," Mrs. Jones said. 

Michael entered the room at that moment. "I'm sure he did, he's good at doing things like that." 

"Michael!" Gavin exclaimed, "You have no bloody idea what we're talking about." 

"No, but I can guess you said something stupid." 

Mrs. Jones and I laughed while Gavin hopped off the couch, heading towards the door. 

"I guess that's our sign to leave," I said, following him. "It was nice to see you, Mrs. Jones." 

Michael grumbled something that resembled a goodbye and Gavin hollered "Goodbye!" as he walked out the door. 

"It sucks that we're not old enough to drive," Michael said as we walked. 

"Well, some of us aren't," I said, looking at Gavin. 

"Oh yeah, why don't you drive us around?" Michael asked. 

"I don't think licenses work over here," Gavin replied. 

"That's stupid, why wouldn't it?" 

"I don't know, foreign rules?" He replied. 

"You're stupid." 

"You don't even have your license at home, do you?" I asked Gavin, remembering him saying something about it once. 

"Yeah, things work differently at home, I think you have to be 17 to actually drive. To be honest, I don't really know, I never really had an interest. Why drive when you can have someone else drive you around?" Gavin asked. 

"But you don't always have someone to drive you around," Michael said, gesturing around them. "Look at us now." 

"Hmm, point. I still don't want to drive. Walking isn't too bad." Gavin said. 

I laughed and reached out to grab his hand, "You're endlessly entertaining." 

Gavin smiled, "Thanks, X-Ray. Oh, Michael, by the way, do you know what's going on in that show your mother was watching? I was very confused."

Michael sighed, "Did she have you watching a soap opera? She's loves that shit, I swear to god. But yeah, I don't understand it at all. Sorry."

"I think maybe they're all running a drug ring," I suggested.

"That must be it," Gavin replied.

"Next thing I know, I'm going to find you two at my house all the time, watching television with my mother."

"Would that make you uncomfortable?" I asked.

"Yes," Michael said.

"Let's do it, then," Gavin said. I nodded in reply, smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's been so long, oh dear! I feel really bad so I posted this fairly short chapter to keep everyone updated, so you know I didn't give up. I've been really busy and really lazy, too. Thanks for reading, I'll post more very soon!!!


	25. Chapter 25

The night at Geoff's house passed the same as most nights at Geoff's house. It was just the six of us, Lindsay didn't come over this time, she had plans with another one of her friends, so it was just the boys. 

"I bet I can eat more pizza than Ryan!" Gavin said at one point, which was probably where I should have told him to shut up.

Jack laughed, "Bring it."

Two entire pizzas were devoured between the two of them, which left Jack exactly how he normally was, and Gavin clutching his stomach, threatening to puke at any moment.

He sat on our chair, curled up in a ball. I squeezed in beside him, wrapping my arms around him so I could rub his stomach soothingly. "Why do you do things like that?" I asked, mostly out of curiosity.

"I don't know. I'm stupid? A way to pass the time? Or maybe just to see what happens?" 

"You're dumb as shit," Michael supplied as his answer.

"I think it might just be all three," I suggested.

Ryan entered the living room, then, strolling over to the couch, whistling happily. "Gavin, what's wrong? Not feel good? Why would that be?"

Gavin groaned, loudly, while Geoff said, "I really believe Ryan is insane. He is starting to show all of the signs."

Gavin and I refrained from playing any games for the rest of the night, we just sat and watched others, as Gavin tried to keep his food down. It wasn't actually that bad of a way to spend the night. I fell asleep sometime after midnight, after watching Jack attempt to complete a level in Trials for the twentieth time. I was curled around Gavin, my head resting on his chest.

Hours later, I woke up hours, in the dark, mostly in the same position as before, except Geoff was standing in front of me, picking Gavin's hand up. 

"What are you doing?" I asked, groggily, unable to see properly in the darkness. 

Geoff jumped a bit and almost dropped the cup he was holding in his hand, which I was finally able to make out. I laughed out of both amusement and horror. 

"Are you actually trying to get Gavin to pee himself? I doubt that works, but if it does, that is fucked up. Like, Gavin can piss all over himself, but I am right here. That's fucking nasty," I continued to laugh. 

Geoff chuckled in return, "It would have been perfect payback for both of you assholes." 

"You would have had to clean up Gavin's pee! And go the rest of your life knowing that Gavin had peed all over this chair. I feel like it wouldn't have been worth it," I replied. 

"It would've. And I would have made Gavin clean it up. I was just going to accuse him of peeing himself, which would have been funny for even more reason. This was such a good plan. Why'd it have to fail now? Go back to sleep, jackass." 

"You sound like one of those villains from Scooby Doo." 

Geoff laughed and walked into the kitchen, dumping the water into the sink. "I can relate to the villains now. They put so much hard work into their plan just to have it all ruined by some lame ass kids. I completely relate. You're the lame ass kids." 

"Just go back to sleep," I told him, cuddling back into Gavin's side and falling back asleep quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a quick little update chapter, not really a full chapter, just a fun little thing to let you know I'm still working on it. My computer is broken, completely useless, so I haven't been able to write anything. I had to write this on my mother's laptop, which is wrong for so many reasons. I don't know when or if my laptop will be fixed, though, so I might have to do this again. I will update weekly again, but it may have to be shorter chapters. I'm sorry for how long this is taking, but i hope you enjoyed this much, at least. Thank you so much to everyone who continues to read this, and enjoys it!


	26. Chapter 26

The next morning I woke up to find Gavin on the floor, limbs spread out in all directions.

"Are you doing okay, Vav?" I asked.

"Yeah, jus took a bit of a tumble. I guess I'm not awake yet," he said, not moving from where he was lying.

Jack walked into the living room, looking around to see what had fallen. When he saw Gavin on the floor, he chuckled a bit. "Is he going to make it?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine. This is an everyday occurance to him."

Geoff groaned from where he was sitting, on the couch near my chair. "Well, since we're all awake now, thanks to this asshole, do you guys want to go get breakfast or something?"

This had become a part of our routine when we stayed at Geoff's. We would always get breakfast the morning after, before we all went home. I really enjoyed it, because breakfast was awesome.

We all said our agreements, as expected, and an hour and a half later, we were leaving a restaurant, all of us full of pancakes, toast, and eggs. 

"Gav and I should probably head home now. We're going on a double date today, with Michael and Lindsay," I said.

Gavin nodded excitedly. "I had almost forgotten about that, yes, let's go home, see you all later!" he said, pulling me away, towards the direction of my house.

"We didn't have to hurry home that quickly," I pointed out.

"Yes, we did. It's Saturday morning, your mom is going out with her friends, remember?" He said. 

I actually didn't remember that, which is surprising, because out of the two of us, I was usually the one who remembered things like that. 

"We don't have to go home because of that, though. She knows we're with Geoff," I replied.

"That's not why I wanted to go home. We have a house to ourselves. If we went back to Geoff's, we wouldn't be alone," he said, adding an emphasis on the word alone, which lead me to realize why he wanted to go home.

"Oh, yeah! That's a great plan! Let's go!" I said, grabbing on to his hand and pulling him along.

"That's the spirit!"

We got home five minutes later, running into the house. Gavin slammed the door behind him and immediately wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close to him.

"Hi, Ray," he said, a smiling lighting up his face.

"Hey, Gavin," I replied, covering his smile with my own lips. We moved back slowly as we kissed, so eventually my back was pressed against the door. Gavin moved his hands so the palms were against the door, and I placed my hands on his hips, moving his shirt up slightly so I could feel the warm skin there. His tongue traced my lips, encouraging me to open them. I did, and then our tongues slid together in a way that still surprised me, even though it was far from the first time we had done this. For some reason, I had expected kissing to be awkward as hell, especially at first, but with Gavin, it wasn't awkward at all. Actually, it might have been, but if it was, it was too awesome for me to worry about. I was glad to be wrong.

 

 

A few hours later, Gavin and I had spent awhile kissing, then watching some television, before we finally started getting ready to go on our date. We had plans to meet Lindsay and Michael at the movies at six, so we left my house about twenty minutes before six.

"Sorry I couldn't pick you up in some sweet wheels," I said to Gavin as we walked.

He laughed, "Well, I guess if I was really looking for a date with sweet wheels, I wouldn't have picked you. I can handle walking. We can just find soemone to drive us around like a chauffer sometimes. That'd be fun, right? Maybe we can out Jack in a suit and give him a nice little hat."

"Why does he need a hat?" I asked.

"It'll be part of his uniform!"

"Oh, of course. Is he also only allow to refer to us as Mr. Free and Mr. Narvaez?"

"Well, duh!"

"And we can make out in the back seat while he's driving us around. This plan s perfect!"

"I know, see, it's better off if you don't have sweet wheels, it's much more fun this way!"

We reached the movie theater to find Lindsay and Michael sitting outside. 

"Hey, guys," Lindsay greeted.

I nodded in return and Gavin smiled brightly, "Hello! Aren't you guys just so adorable, wow, amazing! This is top!"

"Shut the fuck up, Gavin, I swear to god, you're just trying to piss me off," Michael said, frowning.

"You know you love me!" Gavin teased.

"You face looks so punchable, fuck. Let's go in there before I actually hit Gavin."

"There's no need to be so violent!" Gavin said, smirking.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him along with me. He smiled the whole way.

We bought all of our tickets, and then went to get our snacks. By the time we were done, Gavin and I had a very decent selection of candy, very large, while Michael and Lindsay just had drinks and a bowl of popcorn.

"Nice choices, boys," Lindsay commented. 

"I know," I said. "We're set."

"Yes, you definitely are."

The theater was fairly empty, which was surprising at first,until we were actually watching the movie, and I discovered how awful it was. Gavin was slouched over, his head on my shoulder.

"This movie blows," I whispered.

"I know," he replied.

"Well, you know what we can do instead?" I said, even quieter.

"What?" He asked.

I smiled, and broke open a box of Skittles, and pulled one out of the box, and aimed it at Michael's head, who was on Gavin's left. I missed, badly, but Gavin still got the point. 

"Brilliant," he said, grabbing a handful of candy for himself. We took turns tossing candy at Lindsay and Michael, which didn't last undetected for long because Gavin was shitty at hiding it. 

"Gavin, fuck off!" Michael said, not whispering at all.

Gavin laughed softly and waited about a minute, before tossing a piece of candy straight at Micheal's nose.

"That's it," Michael replied, turnign and telling Lindsay soemthing. before we even knew it, Gavin and I were being pelted with popcorn, unrelelntlessly.

Gavin quickly gave up on trying to dodge the popcorn, and began to try to catch it in his mouth, which started a game of who can catch what.

By the end of the movie, the four of us had no idea what had happened, and the floor surrounding our seats was a mess.

"The employees are going to hate our guts," I said.

"That's why we're going to get out of here quickly!" Lindsay said as the credits rolled. We shot out of our seats and almost ran out the door. Gavin slipped on the mess, and I caught him, pushin him back up so we could keep going. We exited the building, walked a good distance away, looked at each other's faces, and laughed.

"We're such typical, asshole teenagers," Michael said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have something to write with again! it's not quite as good as my laptop wa, but it works! So hopefully I'll start updating regularly again. I hope you enjoyed this!!


	27. Chapter 27

"Did you have fun on Saturday?" Lindsay asked me in Health on Monday.

"Yeah, it was fucking amazing," I replied.

"You and Gavin going good?"

"We're excellent," I said, smiling.

"It's amazing how you work as a couple. Like, I didn't know Gavin very well before he was dating you, but he seemed completely different before you were a thing. Not that he changed in a bad way, I just think there were things he would never do before that he does for you. It's sweet. You guys just work together well," she said.

"Realy?" I hadn't really thought about it like that. To me, I just saw Gavin as Gavin. We just make out occasionally, now. Otherwise, he's still my best friend. As I thought about it more, she did have a point. Gavin was so much sweeter than I could have guessed. "I guess that happens a lot in relationships, though. like, you and Michael, I cannot tell you how much nicer he is because of you. You've not even been dating that long. You make him happy, I guess."

"Maybe that happens a lot in good relationships," Lindsay said, winking at me.

She had a point there.

 

 

"How much of that barbeque sauce do you think you can drink?" Gavin asked Michael at lunch. Gavin pointed to the bottle of barbeque suace that the school provided. 

"Probably all of it," Michael said, and then continued to eat his lunch.

"What if I gave you $50?" Gavin asked.

"You don't have fifty dollars," Geoff pointed out.

"True," Gavin said "Well, as soon as I get the money, you're drinking a whole bottle. And If you can't finish it, you owe me the money."

Michael shrugged, "You're just going to lose $50."

Ryan leaned toward Gavin, and talked to him in a hushed tone, "I've got some ways you can earn some money quickly."

Gavin and I seemed to be the only ones who heard him, everyone ele was in a different conversation at this point. We looked at each other, both a little confused.

"What would I have to do this movney?" Gavin asked, skeptical.

"Well, I can't tell you that now. Just contact me if you need soem money. I'll hook you up with something then."

"Ryan's trying to hire me to do illegal things for him," Gavin shared to the rest of the table.

"I never said one thing about illegal!" Ryan clarified.

"We all know you're crazy, Ryan, quit trying to hide it," Michael said.

"He's not trying to hide it very well," I muttered to Gavin. He smiled and nodded in agreement.

 

 

On Saturday, Gavin and I walked to the mall, because he was bored, and he wasn't going to stand for that.

"Ray, you just don't understand," Gavin said as we walked around the mall, "I can't let my brain think, like I can't control it. It comes up with some crazy things, I can't let it run away."

"So you're saying, if you're in a quiet room for five minutes, your mind would wander off immediately?"

"Yeah, it happens pretty quickly."

"Are you even human? Maybe you're some kind of advanced alien species, whose thoughts are completely different from ours."

"Nah, I think I'm human. I look like a human right?"

"Maybe your kind is good at camoflauge," I offered.

Just as we were walking in front of the GameStop, which I knew Gavin wanted to look at, I saw Josh, and I choked.

"Ray? What's wrong?" Gavin said, grabbing my hand, looking concened.

"We should leave, right now. Or just, get out of here."

"Why?" Gavin questioned. Before I could answer, Josh approached, obviously having seen us.

"Fuck," I said.

Gavin looked in the direction I was looking and came face to face with Josh.

"Look what we have here," Josh said, looking at us, obvious disgust in his eyes.

My stomach tightened and I wanted to escape badly.

"Bugger off," Gavin said, placing his body in front of me. "We don't want to hear anything you have to say."

"I-" Josh started, but was immediately cut off by Gavin.

"No, really, we're leaving, don't follow us," Gavin said, and pulled my away. Josh, amazingly, didn't follow.

Gavin took us straight to the bathrroms, and checked to make sure no one else was in there. When he saw it was clear, he pulled me in for a hug. "You're good, Ray, it's fine, he didn't get to say anythign to you and now we're far away from him. Don't let that scum get to you."

I rested my face on his shoulder, breathing in slowly, enjoying the comfort. "Thank you, Gav. I needed that."

"I know. I've got you," Gavin replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo! An update!! I'm still having major computer/typing issues, it's rough to get these out. But they're coming slowly. A heads up warning, theyre are maybe about five chapters left. Maybe a couple more if I have to kept updating like this. But things are going to start wrapping up soon. I'll be so sad when it's finally over. I've been doing this for awhile. Anyways, I hoped you like it, and be free to comment what you think!


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, there are some sexual acts in this chapter, if you're not into that. It's only he first part, so you can skip that and it won't have any real effect on the rest of the chapter. It's very minor, though, not very much at all.

"You do realize you're going to fail if you don't actually do any of your work, right?" I asked Gavin as we sat in the living room. I was working on my homework, which was made harder than it should have been because of Gavin distracting me.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. What I want to know is, would you rather have to touch someone's poo, like hold it in your hand and squish it, or watch someone eat your poo?" Gavin asked.

I put my pencil down, knowing that this question would lead to a lot of discussion.

"How is that even a question?" I asked.

"Which one, Ray?" Gavin prodded.

I didn't even need to think about my answer. "Definitely watch someone else."

"Why do you want that?"

"I don't want it, but I think it's the better choice. That's just some fucked up shit. How are you not gagging right now, usually you puke at the very thought of crap like this."

"I don't know. I just thought of it. I don't know which one would be worse for me, I'd puke at either," Gavin said, quietly.

"With the one option you don't even have to come in contact with the shit, though, that has to make it better."

"But you have to watch them eat it. That's horrifying."

"You think about some fucked up shit."

"You're fucked up," Gavin retorted.

"You wanna get fucked up?" I asked with a wink.

Gavin burst out laughing, "You went from shit to sex in two seconds. That was amazing."

"I work hard. So what about it? Since you're obviously not in the mood to do any homework, I guess mine can wait until later. How about I distract you for a change?"

Gavin's eyes got widen when he realized I wasn't joking. We never talked about sex in a none joking manner. When kidding around, we talked about it all the time, but never in respect to ourselves. We had only been dating for a couple of months, and I was too big of a virgin to feel confident about engaging in anything sexual, and I didn't know why Gavin was waiting. I decided it was about time we at least got some handjobs, though, as long as Gain was up to it.

"What do you have in mind?" He asked.

"Maybe I could jerk you off? Is that even correct, can jerk off another person or is that only when you do it to yourself. I eman, I just, you get the point," I stumbled over my words, rambling on, generally having no idea what to say.

"Love, you're absolutely elegant when you say that, wow, how can I handle myself?" Gavin joked.

"Don't make fun of me when I'm offering you something like this, you'd be fucking lucky to have me making a fool of myself trying to get you off," I replied, starting to get up and leave.

"Ray, calm down, I'm just playing, I am absolutely up for it. As long as you're sure," He said, looking at me, completely seriously, soemthing that was extremely rare for Gavin.

"I offered didn't I?"

"You did."

"Alright then, let's go to my room," I said.

Up in my room, we went to my bed immediately, Gavin laid down and pulled me on top of him, kissing my jaw. I struggled to find a place to put my legs, kneeing Gavin in the thigh once before I finally settled with each leg on either side of Gavin. I moved to allign our lips, enjoying Gavin's warm lips on mine. After I was steady and confident in what I was doing, I moved down to Gavin's neck, kissing lightly, licking occasionally.

"I'm just going to unbutton your pants, don't be alarmed," I said.

"Should I be alarmed?"

"Nah, I won't break anything down there. Hopefully," I replied, sitting up on my knees, and backing up. Gavin sat up a bit to give me better access, and I unbuttoned his jeans, the zipper following shortly after. 'Here goes nothing," I said to myself as I quickly pushed down the layers of clothing, until Gavin's dick was in plain view.

Not wanting to waste time, I put my hand around it immediately, and moved it as I would for myself. After a few strokes, Gavin pulled on my shirt lightly, encouraging me to kiss him again. After a few seconds of focusing on moving my hand and my lips, I felt like I was doing pretty okay. Gavin seemed to enjoy himself, at least.

I pulled back, taking a look at Gavin, not stopping my hand movements. "You know, you look fucking great like this. I would totally do you."

"Would you?" Gavin asked. "I couldn't tell by your hand on my dick. I thought I repulsed you."

"Is this good?" I asked in return, ignoring his sarcasm.

"It's fucking great, keep it up," He replied.

"No problem."

I moved back in, our lips molding together. Minutes later, Gavin's mouth fell open a bit, he tensed up, and he came. I kissed him through it, not stopping my hand until he was done. He fell back against my pillows, breathing deeply. I looked around my room for something I could use to clean up the come, but before I could get up, Gavin sat up and switched places with me, so he was stradddling me.

"Where do you think you're going? It's your turn now." 

 

Later, we were equally nasty and slightly covered in each other's come, and laying on my bed.

"We could have planned this a little better," I remarked, gesturing to our mess.

"It was worth it," Gavin replied.

"Oh, definitely."

Gavin got off my bed, which mostly consisted of him rolling off and landing in a heap on the floor.

"Smooth," I said, leaning off to look at him.

He reached up and stroked my face, his hand still coated with not quite dry semen.

"Dude, that was so nasty, what the heck?"

"You were asking for it," He said, standing up, and reachign out his other, clean, hand, offering to help me up. "Come on, I'll help you get cleaned up."

I accepted his hand and followed him to the bathroom.

 

 

"I have a girlfriend," Jack said at lunch one day, smiling brightly.

"Good for you," Geoff said. 

"Is she blind?" Michael joked.

"Nope, she just has bad judgement. She's awesome, her name's Caiti, you guys will have to meet her sometime."

"We could do couple shit sometime," Lindsay suggested, "Since almost all of us have partners. Ryan and Geoff can just keep each other company."

"What?" Geoff asked. "No, I have a girlfriend!"

"Don't lie, Geoff," Michael said. "We won't judge you too much for being single. It's fucking fine, don't be so weird."

"I'm not being weird, I actually have a girlfriend, I've told you about her!"

Jack shook his head, "Geoff, you're really going to have to give that up soon. It was funny at first, but now it's just weird."

Geoff looked at me and Gavin, "Come on, guys, you know I'm not lying, why would I do that?"

"Sorry, Geoff, your story is a little bit weak," Gavin said. I nodded in agreement.

"Fuck all of you, why do you believe Jack has a girlfriend immediately, but not me?"

"Beacuase he's not lying," Ryan said.

Geoff sighed in resignation. "I have a gucking girlfriend. Griffon is real."

"We'll believe it when we see her," I said.

 

 

On the bus ride home that day, Michael sat down in front of me, and turned around to face me. "You're coming over tonight. We're going to play soem games and kick sme asses. I know Gavin's great and you want to be with him all the time, but I'm your best friend, you're going to spend some time with me, too. Send Gavin to Geoff's. Or whoever's turn it is to baby sit him."

"You do realize I'm sitting here?" Gavin asked.

"I don't care," Michae replied.

"Michael!" Gavin exclaimed. "How could you hurt me so?"

Michael ignored him. "So are you in?"

"Yeah, it sounds great. We haven't hung out anywhere that wasn't Geoff's house or school for awhile. It's about time."

"That's what I'm saying," Michael said, turning back around in his seat just as Lindsay was sliding in beside him.

"What's up bitch?" I heard Lindsay ask before I turned to Gavin.

"What are you going to do tonight? My mom can take you to Geoff's, if you want," I offered.

"I don't know what I'll do. I think I might just stay home. FInish some homework. Maybe I can actually get something done."

"Don't balme that on me, it's entirely your own fault you never get any work done," I defended myself.

"It is partially your fault, you're too cute that I can't focus on stupid homework."

"You're definitely just kissing my ass," I said.

"Yeah," he admitted. "I can kiss something else, too."

He leaned in and captured my lips quickly, his hand resting on my shoulder.

"PDA!" Michael called out, turned back around, looking at us.

"Oooh, better get my camera out, I don't want to miss the action," Lindsay said.

Gavin laughed and pulled away, his hand dropping to hold onto mine, his fingers sliding in between my own.

 

 

I got to Michael's house around six, and the door was answered by his mom.

"Hello, Ray, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm great, how are you?"

"Wonderful, and I'm so glad to you're here, I feel like I haven't seen you for awhile. Well, come on in, Michael's in his room."

"Thank you, Mrs. Jones," I said, heading up to Michael's room.

"Fuck, shit, what the fuck, where did you even come from?" I heard as I reached Michael's room, and then another, louder "Shit!" which more than like signalled his character dying.

I pushed open the door, and saw that I was right, Michael had just died.

"I see you're doing good," I commented.

Michael pushed his controller into my hand. "Here, you try, show me how it's done, Mr. Perfect."

I nodded, and sat down on his bed, "Thanks for calling me by my preferred name. I appreciate it."

A couple hours later, Michael and I were still trying to one up one another when his mom called, "Do you two want dinner?"

"Fuck yeah," Michael said, immediately leaving his room. I followed behind, laughing at his excitement.

"I made lasagna, I hope you're okay with that, Ray," Mrs. Jones said as we got into the kitchen.

"I'll eat basically anything," I replied, which caused her to smile.

It was just Mrs. Jones, Michael, and I for dinner, since Michael's dad was at a friend's house. We chatted easily for most of it, until Mrs. Jones asked, "Did you enjoy the movie you all went to see? On your dates?"

My eyes widened a little bit. Did she know who my date was? Did she care? Or did she not know, and this was about to get really awkward for me? I looked at Michael, searching for an answer, but he didn't notice.

I decided to tell the truth, to spare myself getting caught in any lies. "The movie actually sucked, we kept ourselves entertained by irritating Lindsay and Michael. That made it a lot more fun."

"Yeah, because that's what you do when a movie is boring, terrorize your friends. That's cool. That's totally a Gavin way to think of things."

"It was his idea, so I imagine it is how he thinks," I said. 

Mrs. Jones seemed to catch on at that moment. "And Gavin was your date?"

I looked down at my food, not wanting to see her reaction to the answer, and Michael cursed.

"Shit, Ray, I'm sorry, I didn't even think about that, I'm sorry, I promise my mom doesn't care though. She's cool, and she puts up with me, you know? Anything's better than my behavior," Michael apologized.

I played with a piece of cheese on my plate, feeling unbelievably uncomfortable.

"Ray, dear, it's okay, I shouldn't have said anything, we can pretend I didn't," Mrs. Jones said.

I took a deep breath and said, "No, it's okay, yeah, Gavin's my boyfriend. Sorry to make things awkward."

"You did nothing wrong, ti's fine! And what a good couple you two make, I've only met Gvain a few times, but he seems like a wonderful kid, and I alreayd know you're great, Ray. That's nice to hear," She said.

We moved on after that, but I remained pretty quiet through the rest of the meal. 

After dinner, back in Michael's room, he said, "I really didn't mean to out you in front of my mom. I'm just so used to you and Gavin that I forget that some people can be dicks about it."

"It's fine, she took it really well, I just don't do that much. Like I've told my mom and my friends, but no one else. Like, I'm not keeping it a secret. Just there's no one else i'm close to that needed to know. But I'm going to have to be doing stuff like this for the rest of my life. It sucks."

"Yeah, I can only imagine. You know we're all here for you, me, your friends, your mom, and especially Gavin."

"Thank you," I said. 

"It's only the truth. So, speaking of the future, what are you two going to do when Gavin goes home?" Michael asked.

I look at him, confused, "What do you mean?"

"Are you going to stay together?" He clarified.

"Of course, why would we break up?" 

"England's far away."

"Thanks for the geography lesson. We won't just break up, we have the internet, it won't be hard to keep in touch."

"Yeah, I know, it just won't be the same."

"Different doesn't mean bad."

"That's definitely true. Sorry to be an asshole. Do you want to kick my ass in Halo?"

"You know it," I said, and the topic of Gavin was basically dropped for the rest of the night. Except in my head. Because Michael masde me realize that It was April. Gavin goes home at the end of May. I only had so much longer with him, and then he'd be in a different country. For who knows how long. And there was a very good chance we wouldn't seen each other in person for a logn time once he went home. I had to make the most of the time I had left.

 

 

Mrs. Jones offered to drive me home, and I acceptedMichael opted to stay home to actually get started on the homeowkr that was due the next day, so it was just me and his mom. She didn't treat me any differently than she had earlier that day, before she knew. Once she got to my house, I was getting out, saying my thanks and goodbyes, when she said, "You and Gavin will have to come over soon, okay?"

I smiled and nodded, glad she was so nice. She was the exact opposite of Josh, thankfully.

It was ten by the time I got home, and I was kind of surprised to see all the lights off, apparently both my mom and Gavin had already gone to bed. I went to my room, changed into some sleeping clothes, and then went to Gavin's room, pushing the door open slowly. I walked carefully, and slid into bed beside Gavin. He rolled over to face me.

"Hi, X-Ray," he said, his breath brushing against my face.

"Hey, Gavin," I said, kissing him softly. "Is it cool if I sleep here tonight?"

"You already know it is, you don't have to ask," He said, wrapping his arm around me. "I couldn't sleep, anyways, so I'm glad you're here."

"I've got good timing apparently," I replied.

"You do. Now, tell me a story, or something, to get me to fall asleep."

"That's my job now?" I asked.

"Yep, it's your job forever."

"I don't have any stories prepared. I can tell you about what happened at Michael's today, I guess, if that works."

"That would be great," Gavin said, cuddling into my side."

I told him anything interesting that had happened, leaving out anything that had to do with him, and not even ten minutes later, he was asleep, his chest rising and falling steadily.

"I didn't know it'd be that easy," I whispered to myself, falling asleep soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so ready to write this story now. I had a six hour shift at work today, and I was so bored that I spent almost the entirety of it thinking about this, and planning things. I hope you like it, thanks so much to everyone who continues to read it.


	29. Chapter 29

Time passed, in a wave of homework, school, video games, Gavin, friends, and before I knew it, it was the beginning of May. I only had a month left of my freshman year, and I couldn't believe how quickly it had gone. At the same time, when I thought about it, so much had happened during the year, more than any other year of my life, for sure. That didn't actually mean very much, though, considering I didn't really do much, so it wasn't hard to improve on. 

One Friday, at Geoff's house, I could tell Gavin and Geoff were up to something. They were holding back giggles and whispering to each other. I let them be weird on their own, not sure I wanted to know. 

"Let's play Minecraft!" Gavin said. 

"Sure, whatever you want," Geoff said. 

Gavin started it on his own, and I didn't pay much attention to what he was doing, until he said, "Ray, Ray, look." 

I looked up to the screen to see blocked of red wool, all set up together. Upon further inspection, I saw they formed letters. Gavin went up to stand on a hill, where the entire thing was visible. It said, "Ray, go to prom with me?" 

I looked at Gavin, and then at Geoff, who was cackling, and the rst of my friends, who had smiles on their faces, like they knew it was coming. 

Michael said, "Well, are you going to answer him?" 

I nodded my head, "Yeah, yeah, of course I'll go. But, god, Gavin, why are you so lame?" 

He smiled and grabbed my sides, pulling me closer to him. "Only the cheesiest for you, love." 

"Evidently," I said, kissing him softly. "You do realize prom is in two weeks?" 

"Yeah. You're going dress shopping with Lindsay tomorrow, we have it planned," he explained. 

"I'm not wearing a dress," I replied, confused at why he would even think that. 

"You'd probably look good in one," Ryan commented. 

"Shut up," I said. 

"You're not actually getting a dress! You're helping Lindsay pick out hers, and then she's going to help you get your tux. I'm going shopping with Michael. It'll be awesome." 

"I'll probably have to kill you. Strangle you with a tie," Michael said. 

"We're going to have a bunch of fun," Gavin reiterated. 

"Wait, how are they going? You have to be a Junior or Senior to go, unless your date is," I asked. 

Geoff laughed, " I'm taking Lindsay. Michael's going to have to watch out, after a night with me, she'll never want to go back." 

"Ha, fucking ha," Michael said. "Why aren't you taking Griffon? Is she too busy no being real?" 

"Shut the fuck up, she's fucking real! She's just in school, and she has finals right after prom, so she doesn't have any time," Geoff explained. 

"The lies are so intricate," Michael commented.

"He's pissed because he has to go with Ryan," Gavin explained. 

"Well, I guess I'm lucky to get you, then?" 

"You know it," he replied. 

 

 

  
There were racks upon racks of blue, purple, red, pink, every color a teenage girl could desire. I had four dresses folded over my arms, and Lindsay was still on the hunt for more. 

"Don't let them touch the ground," a sales lady said, a stern look on her face. I grabbed the bottoms frantically, trying to make sense of the mounds of cloth. 

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Lindsay apologized. She wasn't the one carrying all the dresses, she didn't have the right to apologize. This was the second shop we had been to, and I was quickly learning that it wasn't going to be the last. Dress shopping could apparently be an all day affair. I imagined Gavin and Michael, who were probably dicking around at this point, already gotten both of their tuxes. 

Lindsay held up a blue dress, forgetting the snappy sales lady quickly. "Does this look nice?" 

"Yeah, it looks the same as the blue one who had earlier," I commented. It was almost the exact shade. 

"No, it doesn't! The cut is all different! I'm not even that into fashion, but come on, Ray, how could you not tell?" She threw the dress on top of the pile anyways. 

"I must be blind," I replied. "Don't you have enough now? Why don't you try them on now?" 

She looked at the mass in my arms and nodded. "Alright, come on." 

She lead me through the racks and to a series of dressing rooms. I hung the dresses on the rack in one of the rooms and went out into the waiting area, sitting down and pulling out my phone. 

"This is quite an experience," I sent Gavin. 

"Hey, Ray, I haven't seen you for awhile," I heard someone said from my side. I looked over to find a familiar smile, Caleb, who was Josh's friend. 

"Oh, yeah, hey," I said in reply, slightly shaken up. Caleb had apologized for Josh's behavior, and I knew he was nice, but I was still weary. 

"What are you up to?" He asked. 

"I'm just helping Lindsay pick out a dress, for Prom," I replied. 

His eyebrows raised, "Lindsay? Is she... your girlfriend?" 

I shook my head, "No, just a really good friend. She doesn't want her boyfriend to see her dress until the day of the dance." 

"Ah, cool," he replied. 

I snorted, "No, not really." 

"So you're still with Gavin, then?" He asked. 

My face got warmer, I wasn't going to bring it up, but since he directly asked me, I guess I would have to. "Yeah. Definitely. Um, how's Josh?" 

"You'd know just about as well as I would. I stopped talking to him. Normally, I don't care how people feel about different issues, but he's just so upfront and rude, I couldn't handle it, and I felt like an asshole just being friends with him," Caleb explained. 

"Really?" 

He nodded. 

"Thanks. You're a really good person." 

"So are you. Good luck with the shopping and all, I better get back. My girlfriend, she's got me shopping with her. She doesn't care if I see her dress. I'll see you around, okay?" 

I nodded in reply, "Yeah, definitely." 

I felt much better after our talk, and managed to survive the rest of the shopping trip. 

At one point, Gavin messaged me back, "Make sure she gets something pretty!" 

I chuckled and ignored him. 

Lindsay had her new dress, which was a peach colored thing, that was the best way I could describe it. 

We found my suit, and all the parts necessary in about half an hour, and by that point I was about to swear to never go shopping again. Lindsay stopped at her house first, dropping off her dress, and then took me back to mine, where we met up with Michael and Gavin, to hang out for awhile, watching movies and eating popcorn. 

Gavin pulled me so I was half sitting on him, half laying down on the couch. "Hello, X-Ray." 

I kissed him lightly. "Hi." 

"Did you have fun faffing about?" 

"So much fun. I think I've seen all the prom dresses in the city," I replied. 

"No, you haven't, shut the fuck up," Lindsay said. 

"Love you, too, Lindsay." 

I kissed Gavin again, this time on the cheek. "I'm so exhausted, that was tough work." 

He laughed, "You can go to sleep." 

I nodded, "I think I will," and I laid my head on his chest, enjoying the warmth and comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like it :D Thanks for reading!!


	30. Chapter 30

"Well, aren't you handsome?" Lindsay said, entering my room. She was wearing her dress, and looked stunning. 

"You're one to talk, wow. Michael might pee himself," I said in return. 

"Is that natural reaction?" She asked, sitting down on my bed. 

"Well, I might do that when we walk into the dance room. Do you think we'll get harassed?" I asked. I had been slightly worried about this since Gavin had asked me. We didn't try to hide our relationship, but we also didn't make out in the halls or anything major. Anyone who knew us and paid enough attention could tell, but most didn't know. 

"It doesn't matter if they do, you have a whole gang of us to back you up. Ryan alone could scare anyone away. Jack might look intimidating if you didn't know he was actually a teddy bear. And Michael would fuck someone up if they messed with you or Gavin, and you know it. You're beyond safe." 

I nodded, actually feeling better. "Do we have to hide up here?" 

"At least for a little while, we can't let our dates see us before the right time," she answered. 

I shook my head, but accepted it. I had been ready for half an hour already, but I was told I wasn't allowed to come out of my room yet. 

My mom came up and visited us about five minutes later, and smiled brightly when she saw us. "You both look so nice, I can't believe you're going to Prom, Ray, you're so grown up. Just between us, I saw Gavin and Michael down there, and they both look just as wonderful as the two of you. You guys are going to have a great night. I do have to say, the Ryan kid is wearing a kilt. I mean, I guess times have changed since I was in school, but I didn't know kilts were in." 

I laughed, "They aren't in, Mom, I promise. I can't believe he's actually wearing a kilt." 

Lindsay shrugged, "Ryan's confident, he could probably pull off anything, I'm not surprised." 

"Are you ready up there?" Michael yelled. 

"We've been ready the whole time, we were waiting on them!" I exclaimed. 

"They must have been thinking the same thing. Bad communication on our part, I guess," Lindsay said, following my mom out of the room. I followed behind, stopping in the bathroom for a second to make sure my hair didn't look absolutely awful. I usually didn't give a shit about my hair, it did what it wanted, but today it felt like I should at least make sure it didn't look awful. I was surprised by my reflection, I liked the suit. Maybe I should wear it more often. 

I left the bathroom, and went to find everyone else, who was crowded in the kitchen. I was met with Gavin immediately. 

"You look good," He said, kissing me. 

"You look better," I replied. 

"Do you really want to play this game?" he asked. 

I grabbed his hand, "Maybe later." 

"Let's go, lovebirds," Geoff said, "We've got dinner to eat." 

We met up with Jack and Caiti, who was unbelievably kind, at one of the nicer restaurants in town. We were surrounded by other teenagers, everyone dressed in their best. 

I sat in between Gavin and Jack at the table. I looked around and said, "There are far more guys than girls in our group." 

Michael nodded, "Well, you know, if Geoff would bring his girlfriend, we would have been a bit more equal." 

"Shut the fuck up, she's busy," Geoff replied. 

Michael laughed, "Just give it up." 

"This is actually the first Prom I've been to. Geoff and I boycotted it last year. It was more on his side, he said that it was lame," Jack said, laughing. "Look at us now." 

"Yeah, I was right, it already seems lame," Geoff replied. 

"You're not going to think that when you see me killing it on the dance floor. Your life will be changed," Michael said. 

"Changed for the worse probably," Geoff muttered. 

"You're not expecting me to dance, are you?" I asked Gavin. 

He smiled and slid his chair closer to mine, "I definitely do. It'll be amazing, we'll be the worst, clumsiest couple out there, but we'll enjoy it." 

"Are you sure about that?" I asked. 

"Completely." 

Our food arrived, and we ate, chatting the entire time. 

"Do you think anyone will spike the punch?" Lindsay asked. "That might make it really enjoyable." 

"I think that only happens on television," Michael replied. 

"If it doesn't, I might have brought some of my own," Geoff added. 

"Always prepared, like a Boy Scout, huh?" Jack said. 

Geoff nodded. 

 

We left the restaurant once we were all finished and went straight to the venue, fashionably late. As we were walking in, we had to split up into couples in order to get in. Ryan held out his arm for Michael, "Ready to go in, honey?" 

"Shut the fuck up, Ryan," Michael said. Ryan laughed in reply and turned to me and Gavin. 

"He gets a bit cranky sometimes, it's just so adorable." 

"Oh, I know," Gavin replied. "He can be absolutely full of vinegar." 

We got in, and Michael went to Lindsay immediately, leaving Ryan by himself. "Full of vinegar," Ryan repeated. 

Within the first half an hour of being there,, we discovered that the juice was most definitely spiked. Gavin handed me a cup of the juice, and I took a drink, only to sputter immediately. "That's disgusting," I said, pushing it away from me. 

Gavin looked confused, "I thought you liked fruit punch?" 

I handed him my cup, "That's not just fruit punch." 

He took a drink himself, and his eyes widened. "That is definitely vodka. Nice." He went on to down the entire cup. 

We went to find our friends, who we had left on the dance floor somewhere. We hadn't done much dancing yet, just stood in a group and moved to the music. Gavin enjoyed standing behind me, wrapping his arms around me, and grinding into me. 

"We're too lame to effectively do this," I whispered to him. 

"Doesn't matter to me," He said, kissing my neck. 

The next song was a slow song, and I turned around, facing Gavin. "Are we going to do this?" 

"Yes," he replied, Grabbing my hand and pulling me close. I put my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder as we rocked, slightly off beat. 

"You have to admit this is at least a little fun," Gavin said. 

"It is. You're most of the fun, though," I replied. 

"That's fine by me," he said. 

The rest of the dance went similarly, switching from upbeat, dance songs to slow, romantic songs. Gavin and I danced together for every song. At one point, when a slow song came on, Geoff stole Lindsay from Michael. 

"What the fuck?" Michael asked. 

"Sorry, she's my date." Geoff said, pulling Lindsay away. Gavin and I laughed at the scene, and Michael started to walk off to the side of the dance floor, but was intercepted by Ryan. 

"If we're dancing with our dates for this song," Ryan started. 

Michael sighed, "Fucking fine. Don't choke me or anything." 

"Why would I ever do that?" Ryan said, smiling suspiciously, putting his hands on Michael's side. 

"I have to pee, I'll be back," I said, as soon as the song was over. 

Gavin nodded, "I'll follow." 

In the bathroom, the music was still audible, but quieter. Once I was done washing my hands, Gavin trapped me against the wall. "I think we should stay here for a bit." 

"Did you have something in mind?" I asked, reaching forward and smoothing down his tie. 

He nodded and leaned forward to meet my lips. Just a few seconds afterwards, the door swung open, and we sprung apart. Geoff stood in the doorway. "You two are hilarious. I just have to piss, don't let me interrupt." 

"How could we not let you interrupt, that is so awkward, Geoff!" Gavin said. 

"It's not my problem. This is a restroom. Specifically made for peeing. Making out with your boyfriend is only a secondary use," Geoff replied. 

I grabbed Gavin's hand, "It's okay, we can finish this later." 

"I'm going to hold you to that," Gavin said as we left the bathroom." 

"I expect you to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This chapter is prom, that means the school year is coming to an end? Do you know what that means? Gavin's going home soon and there's only a couple chapters left. I have a lot of the end written, so there's a chance chapters will come out a lot more quickly


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter.

School passed quickly after prom, filled with exams and studying. I went over to Michael's to study with him a lot, since we had very similar classes. Gavin usually tagged along, even though he didn't have any classes that matched ours. 

"Why don't you study with Ryan?" I suggested one day as we were at Michael's. Gavin was struggling with some scientific crap that Michael and I were useless at. 

"He's too smart, it wears me out," Gavin said. 

Michael laughed at him and threw a pencil at him. "You're going to fail, aren't you?" 

"He actually has surprisingly good grades," I informed him. "I don't know how, whenever I try to do homework, he distracts me and kisses me, but he does it at some point." 

"I'm magical like that," Gavin relied, kissing me on the cheek. I just laughed and pushed him, causing him to flop down all over our books. 

"This is basically what everyday is like for me," I said to Michael, gesturing to Gavin. 

We continued to study, at least to the best of our abilities, and one day at lunch, Gavin actually studied with Ryan, to the shock of everyone. 

"Wow, that's the most work I've ever seen Gavin do," Geoff commented. 

"He's a hard worker, when he wants to be," I replied. 

I was proven right, when exams came and Gavin got entirely A's and B's. He told me his grades excitedly, and smiled brightly when I hugged him. "You did really great," I said. 

The end of the year also brought Geoff and Jack's graduation. Those of us who weren't graduating went to the ceremony to support them. 

"Look, look at Geoff!" Gavin said, pointing at Geoff, who was obviously unhappy to be in his gown. "He looks like he's having so much fun. Michael, I'll give you five dollars to tell Geoff he looks pretty when we talk to him." 

Michael nodded, "I'll do it, don't doubt me. It's the truth, anyways." 

Lindsay fake gasped from beside Michael, bringing her hand to cover her mouth. "Michael! You aren't going to leave me for Geoff, are you?" 

"Well, could you blame me?" He replied. 

"You might have to fight off his imaginary girlfriend," I added, to which everyone laughed. 

"True, I guess your safe for now," Michael said, grabbing Lindsay's face and kissing her. 

Once the ceremony started, we were supposed to be quiet, but it was extremely boring., Gavin entertained himself by poking me, repeatedly, and then moving on to poke everyone else when I started poking him back. We all cheered excited when Geoff walked across the stage, and again when Jack did. Once they were finally through all the names, and Michael was about to kill Gavin, we went down to meet with Geoff and Jack. 

"You're looking hot, Geoff," Michael said, winking at him. 

Geoff flipped him off, "Fuck off." 

"Five bucks, Free!" Michael said, holding out his hand. 

"That wasn't entertaining at all, you only get two for that," Gavin said. 

"Nope, that wasn't the deal." 

Gavin hid behind me, "We never said I couldn't change the rules." 

"Gavin, I'm going to kill you, I swear to fucking god," Michael said, trying to tackle Gavin. 

"Boys, boys, boys," I called, holding my hands up, trapped between the two. "This is not the right place to do this, especially not if I'm stuck in the middle." 

Michael glared slightly at Gavin, over my shoulder. "Fine. You're going to pay me, soon, though." 

Gavin leaned into my ear, "That's what he thinks." 

"So how do you guys feel, all graduated?" Ryan asked Geoff and Jack, changing the subject. 

"Feels about the same. I don't have to go back to our shitty school, again, that feels nice," Geoff said. 

"I'm excited, I can start my real life now, I feel like an adult," Jack said. 

"You would say that," Michael replied. 

Jack and Geoff got whisked away soon after, by their parents, and families, and we made plans to meet up with them at a restaurant afterwards. We ended up at Wendy's which  
was the closest and cheapest thing. 

I threw fries at Gavin's mouth, and he tried to catch them. He failed miserably almost every time. 

"Can you guys believe the school year is over?" Lindsay asked 

"No, not at all," Gavin said, suddenly getting seriously. He was scheduled to leave in three days. None of us were ready for that. The mood was softer, slightly sadder after that. Everyone would miss Gavin. 

Geoff and Jack arrived later, only to find us a lot more somber than usual. 

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, sitting down in an empty chair. 

"We're just sad the school year's over. Gavin's leaving," Ryan said. We all nodded in agreement. 

"The important thing is to be glad of all the memories you have, and all the good times, be happy that they happened. And he's not getting shipped away forever. You can still talk, and I'm sure we'll see him sooner or later," Jack said, surprisingly lightening the mood. 

"Yeah, we'll always have the time when Ray and I drew a mustache on Geoff!" Gavin said, smiling at the memory. 

"And all the times you sucked at gaming," Geoff added. 

"And all of the creepy things Ryan's said and done," Michael said. 

Ryan shrugged, "I'm not as crazy as you all like to believe." 

"There's also Geoff's fake girlfriend," Jack said. 

Geoff glared, "She's real." 

"All the times Ray and Gavin made out in front of us," Lindsay said. 

"Does that count as a good memory?" Geoff asked. 

"I mean, it was funny. And I'm sure they enjoyed it," she said. 

Gavin and I nodded in unison. I leaned into him and said, "There was our first kiss, which you freaked out after." 

"That was stupid of me, huh?" he asked, smiling. 

"Yeah. But I'm glad how it all worked out." 

He nodded in agreement. "What about the time your mom gave you the sex talk when she found out we were dating?"

"Oh god, don't remind me of that, I'm already embarrassed, that was awful," I covered my face and I could hearing Gavin laughing.

We spent the rest of the night sharing memories, smiling and laughing through it all.

 

 

Kisses were exchanged, warm and soothing. I pulled away, and looked at my boyfriend's face. It was going to be the last time I saw it in person for a long, long time. He smiled, more of a cheeky smirk than anything. "See something you like?" 

"Yes, actually, I do," I said, bringing my hand up to caress his cheek. 

"Hey, assholes, are you going to come join the rest of us anytime soon?" Michael called up. 

I pushed up off my bed and held my hand out to help Gavin up, which he happily took, and then didn't let go. We walked down the stairs, hand in hand, occasionally one of us bumping against the wall. 

"Gavin, stop showing me into the wall," I ordered, knocking his hips with mine. 

He smirked again, and ran me into the wall. "Fucker," I said, unable to hold back my smile. 

There was a crowd gathered in my living room, all waiting for us. At first, we had thought it would just be my mom, Gavin, and I going to the airport, but when our friends heard about it, they all insisted on coming along. I didn't argue, not really wanting to be alone once Gavin left. Life was going to be a lot quieter without him. 

Michael and Lindsay were arm wrestling, and Jack and Ryan were in their own separate conversation, which involved Ryan talking about his animals. I decided not to engage in that, not really wanting to know what he was saying. Ignorance was bliss when it came to Ryan. Jack looked over at us when we entered. 

"Hey, guys, nice of you to join us. Even though we're in your house," Jack said. 

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to get to kiss him for awhile. I was just making the most of it," Gavin said, pressing our lips together quickly to add to the effect. 

"Understood," Ryan replied. 

"We're going to be ready to leave as soon as Geoff get's here. I don't know why he's so late," Jack informed us. 

"In the meantime," Gavin said, sitting down on the couch and pulling me on top of him. 

Geoff arrived ten minutes later, flinging open the door, his face brighter than I had ever seen it. Someone followed in after him, a pretty blonde girl with some tattoos and a nose piercing. Geoff smiled, and gestured to the girl, "This is Griffon, dicks." 

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her in surprise. I could practically hear Jack and Michael's mouths falling open. 

"Hey, nice to finally meet some of Geoff's friends," she said. 

"Wait a fucking second, you're actually fucking real? Did he pay you?" Michael interrogated. 

"See, I told you, they wouldn't fucking believe me," Geoff said. 

Griffon just laughed. "I'm real, I promise. And I'm not getting nearly enough money to do this." 

"Damn," Michael replied. "I really thought you were making her up." 

Jack nodded, "I did, too. Sorry, Geoff, I should have believed you." 

"It's cool. Now we have more important things to worry about. We're sending my favorite lame ass British kid home," he walked over to where Gavin and I were sitting and ruffled his hair. "We're going to miss you, buddy." 

I stood up, allowing Gavin to stand up, too, and hug Geoff. It was sincerely the most emotional I had ever seen Geoff. I knew I wasn't the only one whose life was going to be a little less wonderful without Gavin. He seemed to light up lives. 

We left soon after their hug, piling into two different cars. Gavin, Ryan, and I rode with my mom, Ryan chatting with my mother the entire ride, while I talked to Gavin. 

"You're going to Skype me, right? And the others? You're not just going to forget about us?" I asked, genuinely worried. 

"X-Ray, I could never do that, you guys are my best friends! Besides Dan, but he's the only one I really care about at home. I'm going to talk to you lads all the time., don't fret," Gavin assured me. 

"Yeah, you're right, I'm just worrying about nothing. You do know I'm going to miss you." 

"I'll miss you, too. You're making me all sappy. I've never felt this emotional about something like this. I can't forget about you guys that easily. Especially you." 

We spent the rest of the trip chatting, trying not to be too depressing. At one point, Ryan said, "You know, if you want, I could probably find a way to get you to England, for really cheap, just to visit, you know." 

My mom looked over at him for second, "Ryan, you're not allowed to use sketchy means to send my son across the world. I draw the line there." 

Ryan turned to me, covered his mouth, and whispered, "We'll talk about it later." 

 

 

Inside the airport was the same as I had remembered it, six months ago, when we had picked Gavin up. It all came full circle. Except this time I was surrounded by friends, and my boyfriend, and I was so much happier. So many things had changed, most for the better. We walked with Gavin as far as we were allowed, and when we got to the farthest point we could go, everyone took turns hugging Gavin and saying goodbyes. 

Michael said, "You're the most annoying person I have ever met," with a couple tears in his eyes. "Also, you fucking owe me five dollars."

Lindsay said, "How am I going to survive without your pointless questions?" 

Jack gave him a big hug and said, "You're great, Gav." 

Geoff slapped him on the back and said, "I know you're going to come back someday, bitch." 

Ryan said, "I'll name my cow's baby after you, if you want. I'm not sure how Edgar got pregnant, I thought she was male, but I guess I was wrong." 

Griffon hugged him despite just meeting him and said, "Sucks I didn't get to actually know you, I've heard great things from Geoff." 

My mom wiped her eyes, "You're like a son to me." 

And I went last. I had no idea what to say. How could I perfectly sum up all he had done for me? I couldn't, not now, not with just a few words. How do you say goodbye to your boyfriend that you probably won't see for years, if not longer? I had no idea. 

"Surprisingly, I'm not that sad," I whispered in his ear as we clung to each other. "I just think I love you." 

"You're such a donut, you are so cliché. You had to wait until now to tell me, I feel like I'm in some sort of teen romance novel," Gavin said between the kisses he showered me with. "I love you, too, of course. So cliché, though." 

I smiled, and kissed him deeply. "I don't care, cliché is kind of fun. It won't even feel that different without you. Like when you weren't here, I spent most of my time playing games or on the computer. I'll just do the same now, with you. No big deal." 

Gavin nodded, and gave me one last, quick, sweet kiss, before he let go. "Well, I should get going now. I'll miss you bastards. Sorry for the language Mrs. Narvaez, I'll just go, okay, bye." 

We watched Gavin leave, walking alone, to his plane, while I was surrounded by people who cared about me. Michael slung his arm around me, and turned us around. "Let's go home now, yeah? We can play whatever you want." 

I nodded, and followed my friends out of the airport.

I turned around one more time, looking in the direction Gavin went. "Bye, Vav," I said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who read this, and especially those who stuck around through the whole thing. Thanks to those who bookmarked, gave kudos, commented, and any other kind of support. I loved writing this, and it's always really hard to say goodbye, but everything has to end. I can start something new now, and use my experience from Surprisingly to make it even better! Thank you all so much, yet again, and I truly hope you enjoyed it. :)


	32. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Gavin goes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year :)

"Let's play, now, okay?" I said, bored of waiting around while Michael ran around killing people.

"Why'd you drag out the 'L' for so long?" Geoff asked.

"I don't know. Boredom?"

"Are we really that boring Ray?" Ryan asked.

"You definitely aren't boring," I said to Ryan, "no I was just ready to actually play something."

"Okay, well, as Ray said, 'Llllllllet's play'," Geoff said.

It was Friday, school was over, had been for a couple months, but we still met at Geoff's every week. It would be an assortment of people, usually the original crew, me, Jack, Geoff, Ryan, and Michael, with appearances from Lindsay, Griffon, Caiti, Caleb, who I had actually talked to after the time I ran into him when we were prom dress shopping, and was becoming part of our friend group quickly. I hadn't seen Josh or any of the rest of the people form my old friend group for months, which was good. We didn't stay friends for a reason, it was always good to remember that.

The summer had passed quickly, with a lot of video games, and a lot of time spent with Lindsay and Michael. It was a good summer. Sometimes, hanging around a couple all the time got to be a bit much for me, so I'd go to Ryan's house, and help him take care of his animals, which the amount of was growing. It was kind of creepy and

sketchy, but I knew Ryan enough to know he wouldn't actually harm the animals. I think. As long as keeping a cow in a fenced area wasn't harming it. Edgar seemed happy enough, and never tried to escape, even when I purposely left her gate open. My favorite part of Ryan's house was his little calf, which was named Gavin, like he had promised. I felt a little weird for liking an animal so much, because of it's name, but it was really cute. Kind of like Gavin himself.

Speaking of Gavin, he and I always talked at least once a week, if not more. At the beginning, it was hard to adjust to our new ways of communication, but we were beginning to figure things out, which was nice. He would keep my updated on all the things he and Dan would get up to, which usually had me laughing so hard I was crying. In return, I would tell him about the weekly meet ups at Geoff's house, and anything else he missed. Sometimes others would join me when I called him over Skype, and we would laugh and talk like nothing had changed.

The though of school starting soon irritated me.

"I'm not ready to go back to school. Let's skip," I suggested.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, " You're going to skip the entire year? I think it's just dropping out at that point."

"Nah, I'll come back. Eventually," I said.

"Guess who doesn't have to go back to school, suckers?" Geoff asked, grinning. He was going to the college in our city, along with Jack.

"You still have to go to school," Michael pointed out.

"But not back to the shit hole that you fucks have to go to," Geoff gloated.

"It's going to be so much quieter without you, Jack, and Gavin. We'll be so lonely, we might actually have to socialize with other people," I said, shaking as if that was the most horrific notion I could think of.

"Like you would socialize.You'd make me and Lindsay do all the work and then claim the person as your friend," Michael said. He stood up, and went towards the kitchen. "I'm going to get a drink, anyone want anything?"

"I'll come, too," Geoff said, getting up and tossing his controller at me, and the two of them left before we could even say whether or not we wanted anything.

Jack looked disappointed. "I guess I'm not getting that drink, then."

"Yeah, that was weird," I commented, pushing the thought off, because, truthfully, my friends were weird, it wasn't out of the ordinary for them to do odd things.

Like, Michael, for instance, the week after Gavin left, he walked into my house, not even bothering to knock, and pushed me out of the chair I was sitting in, saying, "We're going to have fun, you need fun," and refused to tell me anything else. Then he made me walk around with him for an hour, seemingly going nowhere, talking the entire time, until we finally stopped at his house.

He forced me inside, where there was fresh pizza and new movies laying out. It was a shockingly great night, even though it was sketchy the entire time.

So, yeah, slight bits of weird behavior didn't even stick with me, not for a long time.

 

School had been in for a week, and I was already exhausted. "Fucking math homework, already?" Michael complained on the bus, kicking his bag which was sitting at his feet.

Lindsay didn't ride the bus anymore, because she got her license. I'm certain she offered to give Michael rides to school every day, but he must of declined, because he was still on the bus. He sat with me now, and it reminded me of a year ago, just me and Michael on the bus.

"Yeah, it's like they're actually trying to teach things, fucking bitches," I replied, smiling.

"You complain about homework just as I do," Michael replied.

"I don't anyone complains as much as you do," I said.

Michael crossed his arms, "You're going to be thanking me soon, not going to care about my complaining then," he muttered.

"What was that?" I had heard what he said, but I didn't understand.

"Nothing," he replied, quickly.

It was the newest addition of a list of weird behaviors from my friends, and it was the one that really got me thinking. What the heck was going on?

 

I brought it up to Gavin as I talked to him the next day.

"Everyone's been a little weird," I said.

"I would have guessed as much, they usually are," He replied.

"No, more than normal. They say weird things sometimes, and sometimes I'll enter a room and the conversation will stop. It happens a lot, too. I'm starting to get freaked out, what if they're all in some hardcore gang?" I asked, my mind suddenly coming up with all kinds of answer. They were in a gang, they had made a band, the were all in witness protection program, they were fucking aliens.

Gavin laughed, "Do keep me updated, it would enjoy me to know end to know Jack was in a gang. He'd probably be like, no, why do we have to kill the guy, can't we just talk it out?"

"He's not cut out for that profession, you're right. Well, something's strange," I continued.

"Are you going to figure out what it is? Detective Ray, on the case?"

"You know it."

He laughed, "I'd love to know when you figure it out."

 

I had no luck in figuring it out. I started to believe they were all just majorly fucking with me, or they were fucking aliens. Those were the only options I hadn't eliminated.

I got to lunch late one day, and I could hear my friends talking as I approached the table.

"He's going to fucking love it. but he might be mad we didn't tell him," Michael said, leaning forward, into the conversation.

Lindsay shook her head, "No, he's not you, he's Ray, he doesn't get angry easily. He'll be too happy."

"But what are we going to do before then, to distract him?" Michael asked now, apparently accepting that I wouldn't be mad. What did he think I would be mad about? I had no idea what they were talking bout, all I knew was that they were definitely hiding something from me, I had the proof. I considered staying where I was, not walking all the way over to the table until I knew what they were hiding, but that made me feel guilty. They must have a reason, for hiding something, so I should just let them tell me when they're ready. Eavesdropping isn't nice, either.

"Hey, guys," I said, sitting down at the table, setting my food in front of me. Like I expected, their conversation immediately stopped as I approached. No surprise there.

Michael nodded, "Hey, Ray. Where were you?"

"I had to stay after late, get the answer to a question. And you know how Mr. Charles is, once he starts talking, you can't get him to stop," I said, acting like I hadn't heard a single word they had said. Lunch went on like normal, but I couldn't help to think about what I had heard. My suspicions were right, they were definitely hiding something. But they also planned on telling me, eventually, so I just had to wait and see.

The next day at lunch, when I got there, I wasn't met with a conversation about what my friends were hiding from me, but there was another surprise. There were two new people at our table, people I had never seen before. It was just them, and Lindsay. One, who was sitting beside Lindsay, was a girl with long blonde hair. And then, on my side of the table, there was a skinny boy with dark hair. I sat down beside the boy, in my normal seat.

"Hello," I said, greeting the strangers, and Lindsay.

'Hey, Ray! This is Barbara, and Chris. They're Freshman, and I saw them both sitting on their own, and you know how that is, s I asked them to come over and join us, since we had two empty spots," Lindsay explained.

I nodded, "Well, hey, I'm Ray. I'm a sophomore. Also, they coolest person you'll meet out of this bunch. They'll tell you differently, but don't believe the lies."

"Shut the fuck up, Ray," Michael said, sitting down beside Lindsay.

"See, he's just jealous," I said.

Barbara laughed, "I can tell."

Over lunch, we chatted with them, and learned a bit about them. Chris really like the Lord of the Rings, and had actually gone on vacation to visit the set once. He was a cool dude, kind of weird, but really funny and interesting. Barbara was nice, and shockingly inappropriate at times. They fit in with us well.

One day, I had my phone hidden under the table, out of view from the lunch monitors, who didn't care much to begin with, but I wanted to be safe.

"Whatcha doing, Ray?" Barbara asked.

I shrugged and put my phone back in my pocket, embarrassed about being caught so quickly.

"You're not sneaky at all," Lindsay said, laughing at our exchange.

"I bet he's texting his boyfriend, weren't you?" Michael said, smiling.

I blushed, and looked down at my lap, "Maybe."

Michael laughed loudly, "I knew it, god, you can't go long without talking to him, can you?"

"I have to go so much longer than I'd like to, sometimes," I said, looing up at my friends. "The time difference, you know, it makes it hard. Gavin will stay up late to talk to me, but then I feel bad, because he needs sleep. He's just been super busy, so I take any time I can get."

Barbara sighed, "Oh my gosh, that is so cute, so this Gavin, he's your boyfriend?"

My eyes widened, and I realized that she and Chris had no idea that I wasn't straight, and they didn't know I had a boyfriend yet. I hoped they would be supportive.

Ryan picked up on my uneasiness quickly and said, "You guys aren't homophobic, right? Because we'd have a problem then."

Ryan put on his scary face, the one that made us question his anity. It was nice that it was in my defense though.

Both Barbara and Chris quickly denied it, much to my relief, they were fine with it. Ryan backed off, and I relaxed.

"Yeah, Gavin's my boyfriend. He lives in England, he was a foreign exchange student last year. He's great, he's endlessly funny, and he's the reason why I'm friends with these guys in the first place, he helped me a lot, and that's just how he is, he seems goofy and stupid but he's really the sweetest guy, ever," I babbled on.

Chris smiled, "I can see the hearts in your yes, dude."

"It's even worse when Gavin's here, you'll have to see for yourself sometime," Lindsay said, which quickly earned her a glare from Michael. "Oh, shit, sorry, I wasn't thinking-"

"No, it's cool," I said, smiling to show I was fine with it. I did miss Gavin like crazy, but I could survive without him.

Just as I thought that, I got a text from him, "I just beat Dan in Halo, you better watch out."

I laughed, and replied, "Bring it, bitch."

At the time Michael said, "See the hearts are back. He's got it bad."

I couldn't argue, because he was right.

 

"You and Barbara would get along really well," I told Gavin as I was talking on the phone to him. "She's cool. Chris is, too. They're both great."

"I'll have to talk to them sometime," Gavin replied.

"Yeah, you really should. How's Dan?"

"He's great, he has a nice girlfriend, they hang out all the time, and I'm so happy for him, but it does suck. It makes me miss you," he replied.

I smiled, a sad, lonely smile, "Yeah, I miss you, too."

We weren't the type to get sappy very often, we would both much rather joke about our problems than to actually talk them out. But moments like this were necessary, every once and awhile.

"Speaking of Dan, we made an awesome video, I'll have to show it to you sometime."

"What do you do in it?" I asked.

"I can't tell you that! It'd ruin the surprise!" Gavin exclaimed.

"So that means it's totally a sex tape between you two. That would probably be hot, I'd watch it."

"Bugger my ass, Ray, don't say things like that! My eyes are burning, I can't make it stop, I might need therapy after this," Gavin said. I could hear him running around his room, bumping into things, as I laughed.

Gavin and I were still doing great, the distance might be hard, but it couldn't harm us.

 

I should have known something was up, from how strange my friends were acting. It was a Friday, and I was excited to go to Geoff's house that night, and I just

assumed that's why they were acting weird. Everyone was coming over, from the original guys, to Barbara and Chris, and even Caleb. Everyone would be there, and it's be hours worth of awesome. Because of that, I didn't connect their weird behavior to the past occurrences.

"Today's the day!" I said as I reached our lunch table. Lindsay immediately started choking on the food she was chewing. "Lindsay, are you doing okay?" I asked, when she took a drink of water and stopped coughing.

"I'm fine, forgot how to eat. What makes you say today's the day?" She asked, a wondering look on her face.

"Well, we're all going to be at Geoff's, it'll be awesome, not just these losers," I pointed toward Michael and Ryan, and Michael flipped me off in return, while Ryan just shrugged, accepting the title.

"Oh, yeah, it'll be awesome, yeah," Lindsay replied, visibly relaxing.

"I haven't met Geoff yet," Chris said. "Is he cool?"

"He's the best," I replied. "I was terrified of him before I knew him, but then Gavin was stupid, and brave, and sat with them like it was no big deal, and brought me with him, and then, what do you know, I find out he's awesome, and still kind of scary, but mostly amazing. He and Gavin are really close, too," I informed him.

"I didn't know that was how you became friends, I should have guessed it was by Gavin," Lindsay said.

"That might seem like a surprising friendship, but that was nothing compared to me and Ray. I hated him for years, until I realized he was harmless," Michael said.

"I thought you wanted to beat me up, you were the angriest child," I replied.

"You know why, though," he said, and I nodded, remembering him telling me how awful my friends had treated him when we were younger.

"Some people grow up, and get better, others don't," I replied.

Michael nodded, and so did Lindsay, and I knew we were all thinking of assholes, ones that were no longer in our lives. We had all benefited greatly over the changed we went through in the last year.

"Well, isn't this heartfelt," Ryan joked, making us all laugh. We were possibly too sappy for our own good.

 

I got to Geoff's house at six that night, and was surprised to see that everyone else was already there. We always got to his house near or around six, but I was never the very last one there. Maybe he wanted us over sooner, and I missed the memo. I walked into the living room, dropping my crap in the corner, and sat down in the chair I had claimed as mine.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" I asked, looking around at everyone. As I did so, I caught the huge smiles, and noticed that while Jack and Ryan were both holding controllers, they weren't playing anything. They were looking at me. Everyone was looking at me. "Um, am I in some crappy horror film? Am I about to get murdered?"

Geoff laughed, and shook his head. "Your birthday was a couple weeks ago, and I know we had a party and everything, but I didn't have your present then. It's finally ready, you can go get it, it's in the kitchen."

"Geoff, don't take all the credit for this, we all worked on it!" Lindsay said.

Geoff shrugged, getting caught in his lie, "Well, I did a lot of the work, it was worth a shot."

"Go on, Ray, go get it," Michael urged.

"Alright," I said, smiling, "You guys really didn't have to get me anything, through, it's fine," I stopped talking as I entered the kitchen, seeing what I assumed was my present. I could feel everyone else crowd behind me, watching my reaction.

Gavin stood in the middle of the kitchen, a smile lighting up his entire face. I felt mine mirror his immediately, and before I knew it, I was wrapping my arms around him and pressing my face into his neck. "Gavin, fuck, you're here, holy shit, I was not expecting this at all, are you even real?"

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, his arms also around me. "Yeah, I'm here. Remember that video I was telling you about? I used it to enter this contest, and I

actually won. I got a prize, money, which was plenty to let me come over here, and I have an internship at a film company, which just happened to be located here."

I kissed his neck, moving from one spot to the next, before I finally moved up to his face, taking it all in. I hadn't seen my boyfriend in person for months, and it was amazing to be able to hug, kiss, and feel him.

"That's is so great, congratulations," I said, kissing his chin.

He smiled, "There were times were I didn't think I'd be able to do it, or my video would be good enough, but, well, I'm here now."

"How long have you been working on this?" I asked.

"Since before I left. I didn't want to leave, I was enjoying America. I had lived in England for over 16 years, I figured it was fair to give America a try," Gavin said.

I finally kissed his lips, enjoying the soft movements against my own. I fucking missed this.

I pulled back, and smiled, turning around to look at all my friends. "Was this why you guys have been acting weird for so long?" I asked.

They all nodded.

"Geoff could barely handle keeping it a secret, it was killing him," Jack replied.

"It was hard for all of us," Lindsay added.

"Thank you so much, everyone, I am so happy. The happiness is so much, actually, that I might have to make out with my boyfriend for, I don't know, a few hours, before I can have a proper conversation," I said.

Gavin nodded excited, "Top plan, Ray, let's do that."

A few hours later, Gavin and I rejoined the group, our lips red. Gavin's hair was sticking up in every direction, and he didn't do a thing to fix it. We sat in our chair, played games, ate pizza, did anything possible, glad to be able to do it together.

"This is definitely the best surprise gift ever," I said at one point.

"That's good, because I lost the receipt," Geoff said. Everyone laughed at that.

It didn't take long for Gavin to catch up with everyone, and it almost felt like he never left. We picked up right were we left off. He was also instant friends with Barbara and Chris, despite only meeting them that day.

Everyone beat him in whatever gam they played against him, which was really no surprise.

"I think you lot are ganging up against me," Gavin said.

"No, you still suck, that's all," Lindsay replied.

Gavin stuck his tongue out at her, and challenged her to a rematch, which he lost.

"X-Ray and Vav together again," Gavin said later that night, right before we fell asleep, curled into each other.

"It's definitely better this way," I replied.

Gavin nodded in agreement. "And it's going to be like this for a long time."

"So you're not going to leave me for Michael?" I joked, poking him in his side.

He squirmed, "No! Of course not! If I left you for anyone, it'd be Ryan."

"Why Ryan? He'd hold you captive in a hole in his floor or something," I said. "I'd definitely go with Michael."

"Good point. I think I'll stick with you, though, you're not crazy or angry," he replied.

"Good, nice to know. So we're stuck with each other."

"Yes we are. I'm pretty excited about it."

"Where are you staying, anyways?" I asked.

"Where do you think, silly? You didn't take over my old room that quickly, did you? And your mum knew I was coming back, we were working on it together before I left, and she's fine with me staying longer," he answered.

I smiled, and kissed him softly, "This is going to be amazing."

"You're amazing," he retorted.

"No, you're amazing," I mimicked.

"I swear to god, if you two dickheads don't stop flirting and go to sleep soon, I will lock you away in a separate room," Geoff said, half asleep and grumpy.

"Just imagine what we could do in a separate room together," Gavin said.

"Fuck. Okay. You two are staying right there. You are not getting jizz anywhere in my house."

Gavin and I laughed, but stayed quiet, falling asleep soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. Hmm. Guess the last chapter wasn't the end. I hope no one is upset by that. I think I like this better as the end. Let me know what you think. But really, I loved this story so much, I wasn't ready for it to be over. This is the real ending, I promise. (I make no promises about a possible sequel. It might happen. It might not. I have to think) Thanks to everyone who read it, and thanks to all the supporters, I loved this, I hope you did too. (By the way, haha, surprise epilogue. If you counted the number of times I used the word surprisingly, or any form of it, you would probably be amazed. I'm sure it was a lot.)


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